Hi Richard, (01)
Thanks for stopping by and introducing yourself at the Future Salon. You
mentioned that you might be interested in finding out more about the
project that I am working on. (02)
It is called the NLS/Augment Restoration project, and Phil Gust is the
lead. It is being done under the auspices of the Software Collection
Committee within the Computer History Museum
(http://www.computerhistory.org/). (03)
Although people may have heard about the Augment software, or seen it
being used in the well-known 1968 demo
(http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/1968Demo.html), or seen Doug using
it during a demo, it has never been available for people to try out
themselves, or to learn more details about what it is, how it works,
inspect and learn from the source code, read the documentation, etc. (04)
The primary goal of the project is: to preserve the Augment software and
its associated documents, source code, and other notes for future
generations, and to make all of it available to the general public.
Other secondary goals include preserving hardware, collecting stories, etc. (05)
There are a number of different areas that are in need of help. Here are
several that come to mind: (06)
* technical - software
** PDP-10 emulator, port emulator to MacOs
** PDP-10 emulator, port emulator to Windows
** TOPS-20, install a clean TOPS-20 operating system that Augment can
run on
** write software driver for chord keyset to run on Windows
** improve modern Java-based client-side Augment terminal used to
connect to Augment system
** make a self-contained, "kittable" Augment system that be easily
installed on any modern PC (07)
* technical - documentation
** collect and write new information about hardware
** collect and write new information about original software
** write new information about how to run Augment on a modern PC (08)
* technical - hardware
** create adapter cable for old hardware (mice, chord keysets) to
work with modern PCs
** learn about and make work a hardware lineprocessor with mouse and
keyset (09)
* artifacts - organization
** identify and organize/catalog shelves of paper (documentation,
manuals, etc.) in Computer History Museum
** locate and organize/catalog available information (papers, web
pages, photos) on the web
** locate and organize/catalog available information (tutorials,
source code, other documents) within Augment system itself (010)
* historical - interviews and stories
** locate existing interviews (video, audio, text) with original NLS
and Augment team members, and catalog/archive them
** conduct new interviews (video, audio, text) with original NLS and
Augment team members
** since this project was done over a 25-40 year period, there are
many interesting, funny, and/or surprising stories that accompany the
project but are largely known only by the team members themselves.
Collecting these stories is more about preserving the connection with
people as opposed to just preserving the software and hardware itself. (011)
For more information about the project, you can see:
http://community.computerhistory.org/scc/projects/nlsproject/ (012)
If you do decide you have the time and interest to volunteer a little of
your time, please let me know what area interests you. There is no need
to give a commitment over a long period of time, but rather just
volunteer time on a case-by-case basis, as free time presents itself to you. (013)
Thanks, (014)
Jonathan Cheyer (015)
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