Colossal Typewriter

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Colossal Typewriter
PDP-1.jpg
Original author(s) John McCarthy and Roland Silver
Initial release1960
Platform PDP-1 and possibly TX-0
Type Text editor
Website PDP-1 Restoration Project

Colossal Typewriter by John McCarthy and Roland Silver was one of the earliest computer text editors. [1] The program ran on the PDP-1 at Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN) by December 1960. [2]

John McCarthy (computer scientist) American computer scientist and cognitive scientist

John McCarthy was an American computer scientist and cognitive scientist. McCarthy was one of the founders of the discipline of artificial intelligence. He coined the term "artificial intelligence" (AI), developed the Lisp programming language family, significantly influenced the design of the ALGOL programming language, popularized timesharing, and was very influential in the early development of AI.

Text editor Software to modify text documents

A text editor is a type of computer program that edits plain text. Such programs are sometimes known as "notepad" software, following the naming of Microsoft Notepad. Text editors are provided with operating systems and software development packages, and can be used to change files such as configuration files, documentation files and programming language source code.

PDP-1

The PDP-1 is the first computer in Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP series and was first produced in 1959. It is famous for being the computer most important in the creation of hacker culture at MIT, BBN and elsewhere. The PDP-1 is the original hardware for playing history's first game on a minicomputer, Steve Russell's Spacewar!

About this time, both authors were associated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but it is unclear whether the editor ran on the TX-0 on loan to MIT from Lincoln Laboratory or on the PDP-1 donated to MIT in 1961 by Digital Equipment Corporation. A "Colossal Typewriter Program" is in the BBN Program Library, [2] and, under the same name, in the DECUS Program Library as BBN- 6 (CT). [3]

Massachusetts Institute of Technology University in Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1861 in response to the increasing industrialization of the United States, MIT adopted a European polytechnic university model and stressed laboratory instruction in applied science and engineering. The Institute is a land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant university, with a campus that extends more than a mile alongside the Charles River. Its influence in the physical sciences, engineering, and architecture, and more recently in biology, economics, linguistics, management, and social science and art, has made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.

TX-0

The TX-0, for Transistorized Experimental computer zero, but affectionately referred to as tixo, was an early fully transistorized computer and contained a then-huge 64K of 18-bit words of magnetic core memory. Construction of the TX-0 began in 1955 and ended in 1956. It was used continually through the 1960s at MIT. The TX-0 incorporated around 3600 Philco high-frequency surface-barrier transistors, the first transistor suitable for high-speed computers. The TX-0 and its direct descendant, the original PDP-1, were platforms for pioneering computer research and the development of what would later be called computer "hacker" culture.

Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1950s to the 1990s.

See also

Notes

  1. Eric Fischer (15 November 2000). Re: emacs and other editors. alt.folklore.computers (Google link). Retrieved on 24 June 2006
  2. 1 2 Eric Fischer (17 May 1999). CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace [ permanent dead link ]. Fischer quotes a 1964 citation by William R. Nugent
  3. DECUS number 71 (June 1968) DECUS PDP-1 Program Library Catalog


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