Clem Cole wrote:
Jargon file says: SOS n.,obs. /S-O-S/ 1. An infamously
{losing} text
editor. Once, back in the 1960s, when a text editor was needed for
the PDP-6, a hacker crufted together a {quick-and-dirty} `stopgap
editor' to be used until a better one was written.
Thank you. Some additional clues: the jargon file started at SAIL, and
shortly after was adopted by MIT and then jointly maintained. So it's
not clear which one is "the PDP-6" here. As far as I know, Bill Weiher,
the creator of STOPGAP and/or SOS?, is associated with SAIL, not MIT.