On Mon, Oct 3, 2022 at 2:05 PM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs(a)tuhs.org> wrote:
Good afternoon folks, linked is a list of all of the
call numbers of
UNIX-relevant documentation that I've been able to catalogue lately:
https://pastebin.com/DbDAhX3W
This isn't exhaustive, I skipped many documents under dept (assuming dept)
305, 306, and 308, focusing mainly on 700, 301, 307, and 320.
I was wondering if anyone that has some knowledge of the numbering system
used for these documents in Bell might be able to comment on this in any
way. What I've been able to make some determination on is:
The numbering system seems vaguely similar to BSPs (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_System_Practices)
There are top level BSP sections for the 3B2 and 3B20 among other
interesting history to this community. For some reason the telephone
community hasn’t done a good job of digitizing the complete BSPs nor a
modern index (I physically browsed an index from the early 90s but someone
disappeared it from where I did so). I’ve heard are private collectors
with complete collections of some vintage.
700-prefixed call numbers appear to be general Western
Electric stuff,
most of these manuals being related to switching, power, hardware, etc.
However, the UNIX 3.0 manual and 4.0 reference guide are both under this
series too. I imagine this was simply because the computer systems group
hadn't been formally spun off or otherwise received directive to manage
UNIX documentation at this point? In any case, I'd be curious what all else
may have gotten 700-series call numbers before the 300-series took over
UNIX docs.
As for the 300 series, as far as I can tell 300 is the umbrella for AT&T
Computer Systems, with several sub departments handling slightly different
(although overlapping in circumstances) concerns. What I have managed to
determine is that 301 series encompasses the original System V version
documentation, a few "Level II COBOL" documents, as well as some M68000 and
Z8000-specific versions of docs (I didn't know UNIX System V ever hit the
Z8000, that's cool).
After System V gold, the wealth of UNIX documentation appears to come from
code 307-X instead, I'm assuming 307 is whatever permutation of USG/USL
happened to exist at the time. However, there are a few other codes that
seem to sporadically be involved in UNIX docs as well as other computing
docs:
302 - Just a smattering of Writers Workbench docs, very high call number
suffixes (950-958).
303 - Bunch of 3B20D (Real-Time-Reliable) docs as well as other 3B20
stuff, mainly hardware manuals but a few SVR2.1-related docs as well for
3B20A, S, and D
304 - Another smattering of 3B20 docs, this time mostly A and S, mix of
hardware and UNIX docs
305 - This one is hard to pin down, they've got the basic 3B2 docs, some
other guidance docs for non-20 3B computers, and a mishmash of language
tools like assemblers, a BASIC interpreter, compilers, and a few odd
technical bulletins for products covered in other groups
306 - There wasn't much direct UNIX documentation here, just stuff about
3BNet (3B computer networking?) and the 5620 DOT Mapped terminal
308 - Documentation on a whole mess of software utilities with some odd
Sys V manuals sprinkled in. You've got stuff like the "Office
Telesystem",
Instructional Workbench, more docs on BASIC, Pascal, and COBOL, some
Fortran stuff as well, and a few other reference documents
310 - Seems to be entirely related to Documenter's and Writer's
Workbenches. Whats odd is there is also a pretty even split of DWB and WWB
documents in the 302 and 307 groups, so hard to say why the split, maybe a
secondary department producing supplementary literature? Very low call
number suffixes, so possibly 302 transitioned into 310 for DWB/WWB support
311 - Might be a "trade book" publishing arm, seems to only contain a few
books, including "The C Programming Language"
320 - Might be the "standard systems" trade books arm as opposed to the
version/system specific documentation gotten from USL directly. This list
contains books like the SVID, Bach's Design of the UNIX Operating System
book, some programming guidance books, and the UNIX Programmer's Manual 5
volume series with the metallic alphabet blocks on the cover (echoing the
V7 trade release). What's interesting is call number 320-X comes back
around with SVR4 as the call code that a number of 386-specific manuals
were published under.
341 - This one is very odd, a higher call number than any of the others,
but the only docs I could find under this are the System V gold Document,
Graphics, Programming, and Support Tools guides, which curiously weren't
published under 301 like the rest of the documentation for that version.
Finally, some digestion from this research:
This gives some compelling version-support information in early SysV I
wasn't aware of previously:
- System V Gold:
- PDP-11
- VAX-11
- 3B
- M68000
- Z8000
- System V R2:
- VAX-11
- 3B
- M68000
- NS32000
- iAPX 286
It appears Bell also opted to have different documentation sets for
different processors in SVR2. We kinda see this later on with i386 variants
of the SVR3 and SVR4 documents, but I don't think we ever quite see this
wide of a spread of docs straight from AT&T after this.
Also, among the many documents (one I didn't add to the list yet) is one
referring specifically to UNIX Release 5.3, not System V R3 or anything
like that, but a Release 5.3. I know I've seen "Release 5.2" listed in a
few places, which had me curious, is there a well established record of
what happened with internal (non research) UNIX after System V was
branched? Whether the development stream simply became System V
development, or if there was still a totally separate UNIX 5.x branch for a
while that, while borrowed into System V at necessary times, did still
constitute a distinct branch of development after the initial System V
release. I know there is at least evidence of aspects of System V being put
into CB UNIX 2.3, meaning CB 2.3 was post-System V, that would make a
compelling argument for there being some more development work between CB
and USG folks before they put the final bow on the UNIX/TS project and
formally routed all efforts to System V.
I'm sure there are other little nuggets of information hiding in there,
but that's my digest from this thus far. If anyone knows of any other such
efforts to produce a listing of all known UNIX documentation call numbers
from AT&T, I'll happily contribute this to their efforts.
- Matt G.
P.S. SysV Gold scans are still inbound, just likely will be a winter
project once the rains start and I can't go play outside.