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What is an Operating System? A historical investigation (1954–1964)
- commandersaki 7y agoI haven't read this yet but if history of OSes piques your interest I would recommend reading https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ewd13xx/EWD1303.PDF https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ewd13xx/EWD1303.PDF by Dijkstra. In this he talks about Dekkers solution, semaphores, and the invention of the interrupt.
- commandersaki 7y agoAlso it seems impossible to find a direct link to the paper. Here: https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01541602/document https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01541602/document
- walterbell 7y agoQuoted in the paper, Bruse Moncreiff of Prudential Insurance, writing in 1955 to C.W. Adams: > I have turned my attention to the problem of the day-to-day operation of an automatic data processor. The things that annoy programmers the most are operators, so I am attempting to all but program him out of existence. There are certain phases of his work, mostly involving manual dexterity, which of necessity have been preserved. I have tried to remove all the thinking from his job, since this is what people do least efficiently. I like to think of this proposed routine as an automatic supervisor rather than operator since it will be telling the human operator what to do.
- pjmlp 7y agoVery interesting read, highly advisable for those that think UNIX and C are the genesis of computing world.
- cmrdporcupine 7y agoNice to see this paper framed as "Humanities and Social Sciences" and history of science rather than specifically computer science. Potentially a broader audience and applying a historical/social perspective rather than a more technical one.