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I get happy when I see SketchPad on here. I consider it the hands-down best software system that ever existed. If anyone has any ideas as to where/how I might
by i336_ 9y ago
I get happy when I see SketchPad on here. I consider it the hands-down best software system that ever existed.
If anyone has any ideas as to where/how I might be able to track down the actual SketchPad code I would love to hear it.
The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TX-2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TX-2, the machine SketchPad ran on, had 460KB of 36-bit memory, and it. ran. at. 400kHz. - yes, 400k instructions per second.
The CAD system that introduced the idea of the GUI, clipboard, OOP, and so many other things, ran only a little faster than the masked-ROM calculators you can buy for a couple dollars at the store down the road nowadays. It's kind of mind-blowingly awe-inspiring and yet unbelievably depressing.
I took the above from what I said last time SketchPad was mentioned (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13938330 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13938330).
- phkahler 9y agoYou may also like the simplicity of the UI for SolveSpace: http://solvespace.com/index.pl http://solvespace.com/index.pl
- i336_ 9y agoUpdate: Someone got in touch via email to let me know about something interesting that was only donated 3 months ago: http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102726903 http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102726903 On the one hand, this is the source code to SketchPad!!! On the other hand... the scan quality is extremely low, and I'm planning on contacting the CHM to see if they can schedule a rescan at some point in the future - basically before the paper wears out, as there are currently no TX-2 emulators. But this is awesome.