On Fri, Apr 8, 2022 at 1:33 AM Lars Brinkhoff <lars@nocrew.org> wrote:Multics was started in 1964 and first went online in 1967, although it
seems likely it wasn't exactly at the top of its game yet. Bell Labs
pulled out in 1969. If that was the 75% point, 100% would be around 1971.Not to put too fine a point on it, It seems like it would be fair to say Multics was 'complete' by the time Organick published his book: "The Multics System: An Examination of Its Structure." Amazon says the 3rd printing was April 72, so that means he must have published it earlier. I don't know when it first appeared and can not seem to find it. My copy is in storage but I bet I have the 3rd printing. But I had >>thought<< that was still in the late 1960s. Anyone have a first edition around with the publication date?ᐧ
I have a scanned copy of Organick from MIT that says Copyright 1972 (and has a stamp from the Barker Engineering Library listing May 16, 1972 as the acquisition date). I can't see any indication that this is anything other than the first printing. Corbato's forward is dated Dec 13, 1971.
However, Organick's book is often said to describe an earlier version of the system, up to somewhere in the vicinity of 1968/1970 (https://multicians.org/history.html, also message to the old Multicians list at Yahoo! I'm not sure about the archives of that, so don't have a link). I understand that Multics got much better after the move to the 6180 and DPS8/M; Organick's book describes GE 645 Multics only.
- Dan C.