this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2025
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369
Bell Labs 'Unix' Tape from 1974 Successfully Dumped to a Tarball (tech.slashdot.org)
submitted 16 hours ago by sundray@lemmus.org to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] truthfultemporarily@feddit.org 81 points 15 hours ago (4 children)

They wrote this without googling anything.

[–] mech@feddit.org 48 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

They wrote this without autocompletion or syntax highlighting.

[–] Nanook@lemmy.zip 27 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

They had PAPER NOTEBOOKS cheats

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 8 points 10 hours ago

They also used the classic they knew what they were doing shortcut.

[–] bigfondue@lemmy.world 29 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

It's actually really easy when you get to make everything up as you go along. Like the transistor, and C, and Unix. That place was something else. The modern world was born in NJ

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 15 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

The modern world was born in NJ

* looks at modern world *

Yeah, that tracks.

[–] bigfondue@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Yea I thought about having 'for better for worse' in the post, but I lived in NJ so I'll let them have a little glory for once

[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 26 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Hello World in 1974: echo.c

main(argc, argv)
int argc;
char *argv[];
{
	int i;

	argc--;
	for(i=1; i<=argc; i++)
		printf("%s%c", argv[i], i==argc? '\n': ' ');
}
[–] ZoteTheMighty@lemmy.zip 10 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Bloat, they wasted an extra integer operation with argc--.

[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 9 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

I think it's actually quite elegant. No matter what it has to skip over argument 0 which will be the executable name echo.
If the subtraction was removed and the loop changed to <, it would then need to do an addition or subtraction inside the loop to check if it's the last argument.

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 5 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

The real question might be whether the compiler was smart enough to change var++ and var-- into ++var and --var when the initial values aren't needed.

As compiler optimisations go, it's a fairly obvious one, but it was 1974 and putting checks like that in the compiler would increase its size and slow it down when both space and time were at a premium.

[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 7 points 11 hours ago

Well, good news, the source code is right there. Someone can go check (it probably won't be me)

[–] a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago

I was going to guess the same regarding the time period.

[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 4 points 11 hours ago

Or they just drop the =

[–] bigfondue@lemmy.world 7 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

If you had a question about C, you would just consult K&R, and I don't mean the book