
What is an Operating System? A historical investigation (1954–1964) - matt_d
https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01541602
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walterbell
Quoted in the paper, Bruse Moncreiff of Prudential Insurance, writing in 1955
to C.W. Adams:

> _I have turned my attention to the problem of the day-to-day operation of an
> automatic data processor. The things that annoy programmers the most are
> operators, so I am attempting to all but program him out of existence. There
> are certain phases of his work, mostly involving manual dexterity, which of
> necessity have been preserved. I have tried to remove all the thinking from
> his job, since this is what people do least efficiently. I like to think of
> this proposed routine as an automatic supervisor rather than operator since
> it will be telling the human operator what to do._

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commandersaki
Also it seems impossible to find a direct link to the paper. Here:
[https://halshs.archives-
ouvertes.fr/halshs-01541602/document](https://halshs.archives-
ouvertes.fr/halshs-01541602/document)

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commandersaki
I haven't read this yet but if history of OSes piques your interest I would
recommend reading
[https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ewd13xx/EWD1303.PDF](https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ewd13xx/EWD1303.PDF)
by Dijkstra. In this he talks about Dekkers solution, semaphores, and the
invention of the interrupt.

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pjmlp
Very interesting read, highly advisable for those that think UNIX and C are
the genesis of computing world.

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cmrdporcupine
Nice to see this paper framed as "Humanities and Social Sciences" and history
of science rather than specifically computer science. Potentially a broader
audience and applying a historical/social perspective rather than a more
technical one.

