Hi Jonathan, (01)
Impressive progress ... this is phenomenal! (02)
1. Johnathan et al., ... may I sugest that maybe some of the
communications between the various contributors be done on, and
captured in this collaborative work environment (mailing list, wiki &
webdav storage) ... I believe the process and the knowledge is a
crucial part for anyone who wants continue the hostorical research, or
to follow this team's footsteps is learning more from the restored
system, down the road. (03)
2. Two more questions for Phil et al., (04)
(a) is everyone concerned (especially those alrady contributing to the
restoration process ... like Crispin, Rulifson, ... etc.) already on
this mailing list, and getting posted as well. If not, can we
invite them to join the list. (05)
(b) where do we stand on the legal track (especially with the sad loss
of Lew Platt)? (06)
Best regards. =ppy
-- (07)
On 10/29/05, Jonathan Cheyer <jonathan@cheyer.biz> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I realized it's been a few months since I've posted any info to this
> list. There's been plenty of good news, some of which CHM members
> already know (since I mentioned it in person at the previous meeting),
> and one piece which is new as of tonight!
>
> Just a reminder that we have two tracks in this project: technical and
> legal. I'll give a summary of where nls-restore is at this point in time
> regarding the technical track:
>
> * TOPS-20 Networking - About a month ago, I was able to get networking
> to work properly when using the klh10 emulator. This was thanks to much
> help from both Ken Harrenstien and Mark Crispin. This step was critical
> for a few reasons. First, it allows multiple users to login to the
> TOPS-20 system and hence multiple users can use Augment. Before this,
> only one user could use Augment at a time, by working from the TOPS-20
> "console". Second, network access is necessary for being able to use the
> Visual AugTerm (VAT) client. The TOPS-20 Networking task is considered done.
>
> * Cloning Augment system - As of about two months ago, a snapshot of the
> entire TOPS-20 system that Doug Engelbart uses, has been cloned. This
> was thanks to lots of help from Raylene Pak. This includes standard
> TOPS-20 system files, the Augment system, Augment documentation, and
> lots of other files and programs that will eventually need to be
> inspected and possibly preserved. Special thanks goes to Doug for being
> kind enough to allow Raylene to copy the bits in the first place!
> (Doug's personal files were removed on the clone prior to the handoff,
> in order to respect his privacy.) I believe that Doug's system is the
> most recent (and quite possibly the only) Augment system available. The
> task of the initial cloning (and running the clone) of Augment is
> considered done. (However, a substantial amount of work will still be
> needed to make a package that would be easily usable by the general
> public, or even by a technical person.)
>
> * Augment source code - As of about a month ago, I have located a lot of
> the source code for the Augment system. This is a snapshot of the source
> code that was taken from the bits that Raylene cloned from Doug's
> system. I don't have an exact date, but looking through a bunch of the
> source code, it appears to be dated around 1988 or so. Initial versions
> of some of the files date back to between 1972 and 1979 and come from
> the original NLS system. I have been looking through some of it (it is
> written in a language named "L10"). Possibly all of it is somewhere on
> the system, but I won't know that for sure until I learn how to rebuild
> Augment completely from scratch. I've got much more work to do on this task.
>
> * NLS source code - As of a week ago, I spoke with Jeff Rulifson, who
> has a lot of source code (on paper) for the early NLS system (circa
> 1968) which was used to run the 1968 demo
> (http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/1968Demo.html). I am working with
> him to see if he is willing to donate all of his artifacts to the CHM
> for preservation. Assuming we can get access to everything, future work
> on this task involves scanning all information, converting it to usable
> digital form, and determining if there is any possibility of creating
> the environment necessary to run the code. I've got much more work to do
> on this task.
>
> * Original AUGTERM source code - As of about two weeks ago, I have
> located what I believe to be the complete source code for the original
> AUGTERM program. This is probably the most recent (and only known)
> version of the code. It supports the A1200 protocol (later known as
> VAT0), which is the same protocol that was used by Augment 1200
> terminals in the early 80s. AUGTERM runs on DOS machines and is a
> replacement for the Augment 1200 terminals. This version of code appears
> to have been written in 1987, but I am not sure when it was first
> written. The primary author was Dave Hopper. It is written in assembler
> code and requires a specific Assembler program called ESASM in order to
> generate the resulting binary file. The resulting binary file is an 8086
> .COM file that will run on a DOS machine. AUGTERM expects to send serial
> I/O over a COM port to the machine running Augment, and it does not
> support any networking through TCP/IP. It does support both a Mouse and
> a Chord (or Chorded) Keyset. The ESASM program itself is written in L10
> and runs within the Augment system. I got in touch with Dave and he
> confirmed that the code that I have looks to be complete. I have not yet
> tried using ESASM to assemble it, and I also have not yet tried to run
> the AUGTERM binary. More work to do on this task.
>
> * Visual AugTerm (VAT) source code - As of about two weeks ago, I have
> located multiple versions of some amount of source code (but possibly
> not all) of the VAT program. This is a Smalltalk program written by Bob
> Czech to replace the original AUGTERM. It is written to be run in a
> commercial Smalltalk environment named VisualWorks 2.5.2 by Cincom (was
> ParcPlace-Digitalk) and runs on Windows and Solaris/Sparc. The VAT
> supports the original A1200 (VAT0) protocol, as well as a newer protocol
> named VAT1, which was developed by Bob Czech and Raylene Pak. It does
> support using a Mouse, but I don't believe it supports a Chord Keyset.
> VisualWorks does not use the familiar source code/binary file paradigm,
> but rather uses an Image/Changes paradigm. The Image is a snapshot of a
> running system with live object instances. The Changes file tracks all
> user/developer modifications to the base Image. Both object data and
> code can be changed on the fly right in the running system. I've located
> multiple copies of Images as well as multiple copies of Changes, and
> it's pretty hard to tell what is the same or different between all the
> copies. Some of the Changes files that I have appear to be corrupted or
> otherwise incomplete. I am not sure that I even have the complete set of
> Changes to somehow determine I have a complete set of source code. I do
> have a running system though and no compilation is necessary since the
> Image is the running system. The Smalltalk functions in the Changes file
> appear to be dated between 1993-1997. Copyright of VAT is owned by
> Bootstrap Institute (Doug). More work to do on this task.
>
> * VisualWorks environment - Thanks to James Robertson from Cincom, I now
> have a full commercial version of the old VW 2.5.2 software on Windows.
> It includes the original visual.sou system sources files, which will
> hopefully help me when I am trying to do diffs on all of the various
> versions of source code so I can remove any non-Augment (system) related
> code from the process. I also have a copy of VisualWorks 7.3.1 (the
> current version) which offers free downloads under a non-commercal
> license. A non-commercial license is useful for the CHM, because it
> means it can legally use the software in the code preservation and
> museum demos. VW 7.3.1 is also available under Linux (happily for me)
> and has some additional tools for doing code diffs, so if I can figure
> out how to import the Augment code into VW 7.3.1 from VW 2.5.2 then it
> might help. Other possible future goals might include finding someone
> interesting in porting the code from VW to the Squeak environment (open
> source). More work to do in this task (learning enough Smalltalk,
> learning enough VW, etc., to do diffs on code and possible import into
> 7.3.1).
>
> * Modified VAT to connect to cloned Augment system - WORKS, as of
> tonight! I have been able to determine which live object in the running
> VAT system contains the IP address of the Augment system to connect to,
> and I have modified it in my copy of VAT (running on a Windows laptop)
> to point to my own cloned Augment system (running on my personal Linux
> machine). So I now have a completely standalone, cloned system of VAT
> plus Augment. This verifies that the initial phase of the nls-restore
> project is complete! Now the real work begins...
>
> Jonathan
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