Xerox PARC file system archive
Hansen Hsu, Paul McJones
Revised 8 November 2023
Contents
A walk through the archive: software and
projects
Cedar/Mesa
software
Graphics and
Text for Cedar/Mesa
Imaging Science
Laboratory Software
Mathematics
MAXC
Networking
Databases, File
Systems, and Client/Server Applications
Other
Printing
Voice
Programming
Languages other than Cedar/Mesa, Smalltalk, Lisp
Interlisp software
AI
Applications
Hardware
Design
Tools
Alto
Historical
Previously
Released
More on the archive
File names
Dump/load
files
Disk-image
files
Viewable
formats
Raw files:
endianness
File types
Authors
Provenance
A walk through the archive: software and projects
This archive is a collection of source code and digital text
documents, image files, and other files from Xerox Palo Alto
Research Center (PARC). This came from the same IFS backup file
repositories that the earlier 2013 release of the
Xerox Alto source code archive came from, and is a superset
of that archive, containing files related to projects from the
1980s, up to 1994, that were not included there. Information
pertaining only to Alto systems was covered on the previous Alto
archive walkthrough and will be omitted here.
This walkthrough is intended to introduce the source code and
documentation newly made available and the projects they pertain
to: two different programming environments created at PARC: Cedar/Mesa,
and Interlisp, as well as applications
written on top of these various environments. These applications
include word processing, graphics, printing, client/server,
networking, email, calendar/reminders, music, math, AI, speech
recognition, help systems, interactive data analysis, UI design,
and hypertext. It also includes VLSI chip design tools, hardware
designs and microcode for the D series of computers that succeeded
the Alto.
An alternate view of this archive, which allows the viewer to
browse the archive directly from the root of each PARC IFS file
server, can be found at this index page.
The index page also contains some useful resources, including a link to a Cross-reference page that lists every filename and every directory in which the filename appears, along with metadata to differentiate files with the same name or different versions of the same file. (Warning: this page takes a long time to load.)
You can read more about the story of this digital archive, its preservation and recovery, and a sample of what interesting discoveries can be made in it at this blog post, "A Backup of Historical Proportions," by CHM curator David Brock.
Cedar Language, Libraries, Tools, and Applications
Cedar was a further development of the Mesa programming language,
libraries, and integrated development environment. The Mesa
programming language was designed by Charles M. Geschke, Butler
Lampson, Jim Mitchell, James H. Morris, Jr., and Edwin H.
Satterthwaite, with contributions from Alan Kay, Charles Simonyi,
and John Wick. Mesa had a rich type system and strong type
checking, with syntax based on Pascal; its type system was
influenced by Pascal and Algol 68. Mesa supported modular
programming with separate interface and implementation modules,
features which in turn influenced Niklaus Wirth's Modula-2. Mesa
would also eventually influence the design of Java. Java’s threads
and exceptions can be traced back (via Modula-3, Modula-2+, and
Cedar/Mesa) to Mesa, though Mesa didn’t have objects (as did
Modula-3) or garbage collection (as did all three successor
languages).
Chuck Geschke and Ed Satterthwaite designed and implemented the Mesa
compiler for the Alto, and Richard Johnson and John Wick wrote a
Mesa version of the Alto operating system, which also served as the
runtime for Mesa programs. By the summer of 1976, the Mesa compiler
had been rewritten in Mesa and brought up on the Alto. Mesa was used
for much of the later Alto software, such as the Laurel email client
and the Grapevine distributed email transport and name service. It
was also used for products such as the Star Office Automation
system, and its successor language, Cedar/Mesa, was used for many
later research projects running on successors to the Alto. Cedar
improved on Mesa by adding automatic garbage collection and runtime
type discrimination.
More information about Mesa can be found on the original Xerox
Alto source code archive's Mesa section.
Cedar/Mesa was not just a language and a set of libraries but a
full integrated development environment (IDE) with its own
mouse-driven graphical user interface (GUI), that, although taking
some cues from Smalltalk's interface, also differed from it in
many ways. A demo of Cedar by PARC researcher Eric Bier, recorded
at the Computer History Museum, can be seen here.
One example is that Cedar does not support overlapping windows,
and text selection and copying is supported differently by the use
of the middle and right mouse buttons. Both code editing and
document preparation were done with Tioga, a WYSIWYG text editor
that, like Bravo, supported multiple fonts and styles. This meant
that source code could be rich text containing different fonts and
styles for different types of code.
Cedar References:
Dennis Arnon et al., “CaminoReal: An Interactive Mathematical
Notebook,” in Proceedings of the International Conference on
Electronic Publishing on Document Manipulation and Typography
(USA: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 1–18, https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/51292.51293.
R. Atkinson et al., “Experiences Creating a Portable Cedar,” in
Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN 1989 Conference on Programming
Language Design and Implementation, PLDI ’89 (New York, NY, USA:
Association for Computing Machinery, 1989), 322–29, https://doi.org/10.1145/73141.74847.
Richard Beach, “Experience with the Cedar Programming
Environment for Computer Graphics Research,” in Proceedings of
the Graphics Interface ’84, GI 1984 (Toronto, Ontario, Canada:
National Research Council of Canada, 1984), 65–74, https://doi.org/10.20380/GI1984.12.
Eric A. Bier, “EmbeddedButtons: Supporting Buttons in
Documents,” ACM Trans. Inf. Syst. 10, no. 4 (October 1992):
381–407, https://doi.org/10.1145/146486.146547.
Eric A. Bier and Maureen C. Stone, “Snap-Dragging,” in
Proceedings of the 13th Annual Conference on Computer Graphics
and Interactive Techniques, SIGGRAPH ’86 (New York, NY, USA:
Association for Computing Machinery, 1986), 233–40, https://doi.org/10.1145/15922.15912.
M. Brown, K. Kolling, and E. Taft, “The Alpine File System,”
Xerox PARC Technical Report CSL-84-4, October 1984, http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/parc/techReports/CSL-84-4_The_Alpine_File_System.pdf.
Mark R. Brown, Roderic G. G. Cattell, and Norihisa Suzuki, “The
Cedar DBMS: A Preliminary Report,” in Proceedings of the 1981
ACM SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Data,
SIGMOD ’81 (New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing
Machinery, 1981), 205–11, https://doi.org/10.1145/582318.582350.
L. Peter Deutsch and Edward A. Taft, “Requirements for an
Experimental Programming Environment,” Xerox PARC Technical
Report CSL-80-10, June 1980, http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/parc/techReports/CSL-80-10_Requirements_for_an_Experimental_Programming_Environment.pdf.
James Donahue, “Integration Mechanisms in Cedar,” in
Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN 85 Symposium on Language Issues
in Programming Environments, SLIPE ’85 (New York, NY, USA:
Association for Computing Machinery, 1985), 245–51, https://doi.org/10.1145/800225.806845.
James Donahue and Willie-Sue Orr, “Walnut: Storing Electronic
Mail in a Database,” Xerox PARC Technical Report CSL-85-9,
November 1985, http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/parc/techReports/CSL-85-9_Walnut_Storing_Electronic_Mail_in_a_Database.pdf.
R. Hagmann, “Process Server: Sharing Processing Power in a
Workstation Environment,” in ICDCS, 1986.
R. Hagmann, “Reimplementing the Cedar File System Using Logging
and Group Commit,” in Proceedings of the Eleventh ACM Symposium
on Operating Systems Principles, SOSP ’87 (New York, NY, USA:
Association for Computing Machinery, 1987), 155–62, https://doi.org/10.1145/41457.37518.
Carl Hauser et al., “Using Threads in Interactive Systems: A
Case Study,” in Proceedings of the Fourteenth ACM Symposium on
Operating Systems Principles, SOSP ’93 (New York, NY, USA:
Association for Computing Machinery, 1993), 94–105, https://doi.org/10.1145/168619.168627.
David Kurlander and Eric A. Bier, “Graphical Search and
Replace,” in Proceedings of the 15th Annual Conference on
Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, SIGGRAPH ’88 (New
York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, 1988),
113–20, https://doi.org/10.1145/54852.378495.
Butler W. Lampson, “A Description of the Cedar Language: A
Cedar Language Reference Manual,” Xerox PARC Technical
Report CSL-83-15, December 1983, http://bwlampson.site/32a-CedarLang/32a-CedarLangAbstract.htm.
Butler W. Lampson et al., “The Dorado: A High-Performance
Personal Computer: Three Papers,” Xerox PARC Technical
Report CSL-81-1, January 1981, http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/parc/techReports/CSL-81-1_The_Dorado_A_High-Performance_Personal_Computer_Three_Papers.pdf.
Butler W. Lampson and Eric E. Schmidt, “Organizing Software in
a Distributed Environment,” in Proceedings of the 1983 ACM
SIGPLAN Symposium on Programming Language Issues in Software
Systems, SIGPLAN ’83 (New York, NY, USA: Association for
Computing Machinery, 1983), 1–13, https://doi.org/10.1145/800226.806846.
Ken Pier, Eric Bier, and Maureen Stone, “An Introduction to
Gargoyle: An Interactive Illustration Tool,” in Proceedings of
the International Conference on Electronic Publishing on
Document Manipulation and Typography (USA: Cambridge University
Press, 1988), 223–38, https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102653424.
Paul Rovner, “On Adding Garbage Collection and Runtime Types to
a Strongly-Typed, Statically-Checked, Concurrent Language,” Xerox PARC Technical Report, CSL-84-7, July
1985), http://bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/parc/techReports/CSL-84-7_On_Adding_Garbage_Collection_and_Runtime_Types_to_a_Strongly-Typed_Statically-Checked_Concurrent_Language.pdf.
Eric Emerson Schmidt, “Controlling Large Software Development
In a Distributed Environment,” Xerox PARC Technical
Report, CSL-82-7, December 1982), http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/parc/techReports/CSL-82-7_Controlling_Large_Software_Development_In_a_Distributed_Environment.pdf.
Michael D. Schroeder, David K. Gifford, and Roger M. Needham,
“A Caching File System for a Programmer’s Workstation,” in
Proceedings of the Tenth ACM Symposium on Operating Systems
Principles, SOSP ’85 (New York, NY, USA: Association for
Computing Machinery, 1985), 25–34, https://doi.org/10.1145/323647.323632.
Daniel C. Swinehart et al., “A Structural View of the Cedar
Programming Environment,” ACM Trans. Program. Lang. Syst. 8, no.
4 (August 1986): 419–90, https://doi.org/10.1145/6465.6466.
Daniel C. Swinehart, Polle T. Zellweger, and Robert B. Hagmann,
“The Structure of Cedar,” in Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN 85
Symposium on Language Issues in Programming Environments, SLIPE
’85 (New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery,
1985), 230–44, https://doi.org/10.1145/800225.806844.
Warren Teitelman, “The Cedar Programming Environment: A Midterm
Report and Examination,” Xerox PARC Technical
Report, CSL-83-11, June 1984, http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/parc/techReports/CSL-83-11_The_Cedar_Programming_Environment_A_Midterm_Report_and_Examination.pdf.
Warren Teitelman, “A Tour Through Cedar,” IEEE Transactions on
Software Engineerin 11, no. 3 (March 1985): 285–302, https://doi.org/10.1109/MS.1984.234050.
Douglas B. Terry and Donald G. Baker, “Active Tioga Documents:
An Exploration of Two Paradigms,” Electron. Publ. Origin.
Dissem. Des. 3, no. 2 (April 1990): 105–22, https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102786291.
John Warnock and Douglas K. Wyatt, “A Device Independent
Graphics Imaging Model for Use with Raster Devices,” SIGGRAPH
Comput. Graph. 16, no. 3 (July 1982): 313–19, https://doi.org/10.1145/965145.801297.
Cedar Archive:
Cedar — starting 1984, programming environment based on
Cedar/Mesa.
[indigo]<cedar>
According to [indigo]<cedar>documentation>.Catalog.tioga!6.html>
this is Cedar 5.0.
Cedar5.3 — 1986 release of Cedar
[indigo]<cedar5.3>
Cedar6.0 — 1986 release of Cedar
[cyan]<cedar6.0>
Cedar6.1 — 1987 release of Cedar
[cyan]<cedar6.1>
Cedar7.0 — 1989 release of Cedar, includes MakeBoot scripts
(documentation: see
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/parc/cedar/Cedar_7.0/), 1989
[cyan]<cedar7.0>
CedarChest6.0 — 1986 libraries/applications written in Cedar:
Abutters, ACFind, AIS*, AlgebraStructures, AlpineBackup,
AlpineServer, AlpineShared, AlpineUser, … MazeWar, … Summoner,
Walnut … Yodel
[cyan]<cedarchest6.0>
CedarChest6.1 — 1986–1987 libraries/applications written in Cedar
[cyan]<cedarchest6.1>
CedarChest7.0 — 1987 libraries/applications written in Cedar,
[cyan]<cedarchest7.0>
CedarFonts — 1988–1989 fonts
[cyan]<cedarfonts>
CedarGraphics — 1988 low level graphics libraries for Cedar
[indigo]<cedargraphics>
CedarHacks5.2 — 1986 miscellaneous libraries/tools written in Cedar
[indigo]<cedarhacks5.2>
CedarLang — 1988 Cedar Mesa compiler snapshot
[cyan]<cedarlang>
CedarViewers — 1988 Cedar window system and graphical user interface
libraries
[indigo]<cedarviewers>,
[ivy]<cedarviewers>
Nucleus — 1986 snapshot of core component of Cedar (operating
system, etc.) Includes Bringover, SModel, file system, LoadState,
MakeBoot, MesaRuntime, Dialup, Networking, etc.
SModel is probably the "System Modeler" package. This was work done
by Eric Schmidt for his Ph.D. thesis, based on an idea of Butler
Lampson. Basically, there were immutable descriptions of particular
snapshots of a system, and repeatable scripts for building
executable versions.
Controlling Large Software Development in a Distributed
Environment
Eric E. Schmidt [advisor: Robert S. Fabry]
U.C. Berkeley PhD thesis, 1982.
https://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/Dissertations/Years/1982.html
Organizing Software in a Distributed Environment
Butler W. Lampson and Eric E. Schmidt
Proc. 1983 ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Programming Language Issues in
Software Systems.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/32-OrganizingSoftware.pdf
[indigo]<nucleus>
PostCedar5.2 — 1985/1986 snapshot of Cedar libraries, tools, etc.
[indigo]<postcedar5.2>
PreCedar — 1986 snapshot of Cedar tools — mostly MakeBoot and
AMProcess — perhaps part of port to a new environment?
[indigo]<precedar>
Trinity — 1986 release of Cedar compiler, binder, SafeStorage, and
runtime modules.
[ivy]<trinity>
UserExec — 1986 snapshot of Cedar User Executive component,
including DWIM (do what I mean) functionality.
[indigo]<userexec>
CD8/cedardocs/* — 1978–83 design documents, manuals,
papers
[cd8]<cedardocs>
CD8/cedarlib/* — 1979–86 Cedarnetexec and cedar floating
point. Mesa code.
[cd8]<cedarlib>
Bonsai2.0 — 1993–1994 Small version of Cedar built with Cedar-to-C
translator
[cdmiwok]<bonsai2.0>
CedarCommon2.0 — 1992 collection of Cedar Mesa libraries
[cdmiwok]<cedarcommon2.0>
Graphics and Text for Cedar/Mesa
CD6/interscript/* — 1981–4 editable document format
(see
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/interscript/XSIS000000_Interscript.pdf)
[cd6]<interscript>
3DGraphics — 1990 libraries for 3D graphics
[indigo]<3dgraphics>
AIS — 1985 scanned image examples
[cyan]<ais>
AlgebraicSurfaces — 1990 for CedarChest6.1: James Rauen: Algebraic
Surface Tool Interactive Rendering of Algebraic Surfaces
[indigo]<algebraicsurfaces>
ArtWork — 1984 extension to Tioga editor for graphics, circa 1984
[indigo]<artwork>
Gargoyle — 1987 illustration tool by Eric Bier and Ken Pier
[cyan]<gargoyle>
Griffin — 1990 illustration tool by Maureen Stone
[indigo]<griffin>
Imaging — 1986 projects of the Imaging Sciences Lab, project
directory for Griffin, Gargoyle, etc.
[cyan]<imaging>,
[indigo]<imaging>,
[pixel]<imaging>
Juno — 1985 Greg Nelson's two-view constraint-based drawing editor.
Nelson moved from PARC to DEC SRC by 1985, and later did a follow-on
at DEC SRC called Juno-2 with Allan Heydon.
Greg Nelson. 1985. Juno, a constraint-based graphics
system. In Proceedings of the 12th annual conference on Computer
graphics and interactive techniques (SIGGRAPH '85). Association
for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 235–243. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/325334.325241
[cd8]<juno>,
[indigo]<juno>
Mesa — 1989–1990 snapshot of final Alto Mesa (Mesa 6.0?)
[indigo]<mesa>
Solidviews — 1983–88 Eric Bier's 3D solid modeling system,
documentation and sample pictures
[cd8]<solidviews>,
[indigo]<solidviews>
Tex — 1985 MesaTex79 sources
[cyan]<tex>
Tioga — 1986 text editor
[cd6]<tioga>,
[cyan]<tioga>,
[pixel]<tioga>
Tioga2 — 1988 later version of Tioga?
[cyan]<tioga2>
Whiteboard — 1986 whiteboard viewer
[indigo]<whiteboard>
XPort — 1989 C-to-Mesa translator, X Windows System interface in
Mesa
[indigo]<xport>
Straw — 1980 Mesa 6 system for manipulating Press files with a
SIL-like editor by Joe Maleson
[indigo]<straw>
ISL — Imaging Science Laboratory Software
ISL — 1985 assortment of imaging/graphics libraries and tools
[cyan]<isl>
ISLCedar — 1985 assortment of imaging/graphics libraries — converted
to Cedar Mesa?
[cyan]<islcedar>
JaM, for authors John Warnock and Martin
Newell (with contributions from Doug Wyatt), was an interpretive
language that could represent anything on a printed page in a
device-independent way, using an imaging model based on Bézier
curves. JaM would influence the later design of Interpress and
then Postscript. For more information on the development of
PostScript see Warnock's article "The Origins
of Postscript", see also
Brian Reid, "PostScript and Interpress: a
comparison", LASER-LOVERS distribution list, March 1985.
https://groups.google.com/g/fa.laser-lovers/c/H3us4h8S3Kk/m/-vGRDirzDV0J
JaM — 1988 John and Martin, the Postscript-like language
[indigo]<jam>
A good snapshot of the implementation may be located in [indigo]<jam>pilot>
PreISL — 1985 various libraries and tools for images and typesetting
[cyan]<preisl>
PreISLCedar — 1985 many libraries and tools, including mockingbird,
juno, etc.
[cyan]<preislcedar>
Mathematics
AlgebraStructures — 1990 also in CedarChest6.0: Dennis Arnon:
package for building complex algebraic structures and computing with
their elements
[indigo]<algebrastructures>
CaminoReal — 1990 A User Interface for Mathematics (Arnon,
Waldspurger, McIsaac, Beach)
[indigo]<caminoreal>
MathEditor — 1990
[indigo]<matheditor>
QuantifierElimination — 1990 Arnon: small package of i/o routines
for quantifier elimination datatypes, to enable revival of Jim
Rauen's Algebraic Surfaces package
[indigo]<quantifierelimination>
MAXC
MAXC was a timeshared mainframe, a PDP-10 clone running TENEX,
the standard operating system used in the ARPA-funded computer
science laboratories that PARC researchers came from, that
engineers at the Computer Science Laboratory (CSL), led by Chuck
Thacker, created in part because they were not allowed to purchase
a DEC PDP-10, due to Xerox having recently acquired Max Palevsky's
rival minicomputer maker SDS. The experience gained from building
MAXC (pronounced "Max," as the 'C' was silent) was useful in the
subsequent design of the Alto, which reused elements of the MAXC
design and components, including the Intel 1103 DRAM chips. MAXC
was later used as a server for Alto clients.
Maxc — 1985–86 diagnostics, microcode, operations memos for MAXC
computer
[indigo]<maxc>
Networking
Pup (PARC Universal Packet) was a set of internetworking
protocols and packet format designed and first implemented (in
BCPL) by David R. Boggs, John F. Shoch, Edward A. Taft, and Robert
M. Metcalfe. It became a key influence on the later design of
TCP/IP.
David R. Boggs, John F. Shoch, Edward A. Taft, and Robert M.
Metcalfe. Pup: An Internetwork Architecture.
Pup — 1984–86 Pup implementation for Maxc
[cd8]<pup>,
[indigo]<pup>
Other code for interfacing with the ARPANET and other network
protocols is also included.
Arpanet — 1988 Mesa code to implement TCP/IP, etc, circa 1988
[indigo]<arpanet>
Portola — 1979–91 BCPL gateway code, documentation, configuration,
etc. (Portola was one of the early Nova-based gateways)
[cd8]<portola>,
[indigo]<portola>
PupGateway — 1986–88 Mesa code for gateway between XNS and Pup
networks
[cd8]<pupgateway>,
[indigo]<pupgateway>
NCP — 1989 Mesa code to interface with Arpanet
[pixel]<ncp>
Databases, File Systems, and Client/Server Applications
Alpine — 1981–1985 Alpine File Server (transactional file server) by
Mark R. Brown, Karen Kolling, E. A. Taft
M. R. Brown, K. N. Kolling, and E. A. Taft. 1985. The
Alpine file system. ACM Trans. Comput. Syst. 3, 4 (Nov. 1985),
261–293. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/6110.6111
[cd6]<alpine>,
[indigo]<alpine>
RAlpine — 1981-1987 Client access for Alpine File Server
[cd6]<ralpine>,
[indigo]<ralpine>
Hickory — 1986 reminder and calendar system based on the Cypress
database in Cedar
[indigo]<hickory>
Grapevine — email server (also on CD8 in previous Alto source code
release)
[cyan]<grapevine>,
[indigo]<grapevine>,
[ivy]<grapevine>,
[pixel]<grapevine>
CD8/indigogv/* — 1981–85 Snapshot of Mesa source
code for the Grapevine email/FTP system
[cd8]<indigogv>
CD8/indigoifs/* — 1981–85 Snapshot of IFS (Interim
File Server) BCPL source code
[cd8]<indigoifs>
Squirrel — 1986 Cedar database tool
[indigo]<squirrel>
Walnut — 1986 Cedar mail tool
[indigo]<walnut>
Yggdrasil — 1988(?)–1990 large scale, persistent information storage
server
[indigo]<yggdrasil>
The Alto "Interim" File Server (IFS) was designed and implemented
by David R. Boggs and Ed Taft.
Sources, documentation: [indigo]<ifs>,
[pixel]<ifs>
Other
Tripos — 1986 Martin Richard's TRIPOS (TRivial Portable Operating
System).
TRIPOS was later incorporated into the Amiga OS. (See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIPOS.
A demonstration version called Cintpos is available at
https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mr10/Cintpos.html.
[indigo]<tripos>
CD8/mockingbird/* — 1980–84 Music editor by John Maxwell
and Severo Ornstein
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.bbp2372.1981.052
or https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1984-01
https://computerhistory.org/blog/rediscovering-mockingbird-a-composers-amanuensis/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dxaEDKoTys
http://poonhill.com/composing.html
http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/15893
[cd8]<mockingbird>
Printing
Press was the Alto's device-independent print file format,
designed by William Newman and Robert F. Sproull, extended by Joe
Maleson for digitally sampled (scanned) images, which were printed
via halftoning. Press files could specify mixtures of text,
outline (vector) graphics, and bitmapped images on the same page.
Applications such as word processors or paint programs would write
Press files, which could then be sent to a number of different
printers. For more information see Sproull's article The Xerox
Alto Publishing Platform".
CedarPeach — 1990 Peach printer drivers for a few devices:
inkjet?
[indigo]<cedarpeach>
CedarPrinter6.1 — 1987 Cedar print server
[cyan]<cedarprinter6.1>
CedarPS — 1987 Cedar print server
[cyan]<cedarps>
Fonts 1990
[indigo]<fonts>
FontWorld — 1990 font code (Mesa) and data by Michael Plass
[indigo]<fontworld>
Imager — 1990 Cedar library for image processing
[indigo]<imager>
InterpressDoc — 1990 mostly Gargoyle documents for figures for an
Interpress book
[indigo]<interpressdoc>
InterpressSamples — 1990 mostly .ip (Interpress?) files
[indigo]<interpresssamples>
Press — 1990 original BCPL-based Press printing software (also on
CD8 in previous Alto source code release)
[indigo]<press>
Peach — 1984–1986 experimental Dicentra-based printer software
[indigo]<peach>,
[cd6]<peach>
CD6/xdepeach/* — 1984–1986 XDE version of Peach printing software
[cd6]<xdepeach>
Voice
Voice — 1984 Cedar libraries and applications for Voice
[indigo]<voice>
Programming Languages other than Cedar/Mesa, Smalltalk, Lisp
Note, the graphics language
JaM is covered
above.
Casaba — 1988–90 compiler-compiler by Sturgis et al. used for
Saffron — experimental Cedar compiler
[indigo]<casaba>
Demers/Russell — 1985 Russell programming language by James Donahue,
Alan Demers, and (later) Hans Boehm.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277157833_An_Informal_Description_of_Russell
[ivy]<demers>
PrologCore — 1986–1987 — Larry Masinter: "Quintus Prolog was a port
written in Interlisp by Quintus and included in the draft memo of
software Xerox licensed to Venue."
For more on Quintus Prolog, see
http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/prolog/index.html#Quintus
[eris]<prologcore>
Lisp and Interlisp
Interlisp began as BBN-Lisp, initially implemented for the PDP-1 by
Daniel Bobrow and D.L. Murphy at Bolt, Beranek and Newman, inspired
by L. Peter Deutsch's earlier interactive PDP-1 Lisp written at MIT.
Alice K. Hartley would write the subsequent PDP-10 TENEX
implementation of BBN-Lisp. BBN-Lisp was renamed Interlisp when
Bobrow, Warren Teitelman, and Ronald Kaplan left BBN to join Xerox
PARC. The Interlisp project was to make a machine independent Lisp,
and various implementations would be created for various other
timesharing mainframes, including the SDS 940, IBM 360/370 and DEC
VAX. Interlisp would go on to influence the Common Lisp standard.
At PARC, Deutsch, with contributions from Bobrow and Willie Sue
Haugeland (now Willie Sue Orr), wrote a microcoded implementation
of Interlisp for the Xerox alto. So far, none of the source code
for this Alto implementation of Lisp has been located. However,
the system was the basis for Interlisp-D,
which ran on various microcoded "D machines", including the
Dorado, Dolphin, Dandelion, and Daybreak. Variants of these D
machines would be commercialized by Xerox as Lisp machines in the
1980s when Larry Masinter was chief scientist of the group. A
later implementation of the virtual machine in C led to an
implementation for Sun and other Unix workstations and Linux.
Interlisp-D differed from previous Interlisp environments by being
a fully integrated development environment with a graphical user
interface, taking cues from Smalltalk and Cedar/Mesa, and running
on personal workstations, rather than on timesharing mainframes.
Xerox's Interlisp-D environment was eventually renamed Medley
(after the code name of Xerox's final 1988 release of Interlisp-D)
and spun out to a third party called Venue.
More information about Interlisp and Interlisp-D, the D machines
implementation, and also their predecessors, predecessors,
Deutsch’s PDP-1 Lisp and the BBN PDP-1 Lisp can be found at http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/LISP/interlisp_family.
Additional documents can also be found on the original
Xerox Alto source code archive's Lisp section.
A group of former PARC Interlisp developers led by Larry Masinter
have created a project to restore Medley Interlisp to run on
modern operating systems. Find out more at https://interlisp.org/. The
group also has compiled additional historical resources on
Interlisp here.
The expanded PARC archive contains directories of code and
documentation for versions of Interlisp-D, CommonLisp and other
Lisp dialects, and various applications that were written in
Interlisp-D and ran in that environment. Notable applications
include TEdit, the text editor, Rooms, a window manager, Trillium,
a UI design environment, and Notecards, a hypertext system.
What follows are the various Interlisp-related directories in the
expanded PARC archive, some applications written in Interlisp,
followed by other non-Interlisp Lisp dialects:
JLisp — 1986 Interlisp with Japanese fonts
[phylum]<jlisp>
Lisp — 1984–1987 various snapshots of INTERLISP/Interlisp-D
[eris]<lisp>,
[erinyes]<lisp>,
[phylum]<lisp>
LispARs — 1984 Lisp Action Requests
[phylum]<lispars>
LispCore — mid-1982 Lisp snapshot
[eris]<lispcore>
lispcourse — 1988 courses on Interlisp language and workstation
usage
[qv]<lispcourse>
LISPFONTS — 1989 Strike-format fonts
[phylum]<lispfonts>
LispLibrary — 1989 various libraries for Interlisp
[phylum]<lisplibrary>
LispManual — 1984 Interlisp manual
[eris]<lispmanual>,
[erinyes]<lispmanual>
LispUsers — 1984 packages by non-Xerox and Xerox people, distributed
in source form
[eris]<lispusers>,
[phylum]<lispusers>
Loops — 1985 Object-oriented extension to Interlisp (pre-Common
Lisp)
[indigo]<loops>,
[phylum]<loops>
Medley — 1989 small set of patches, circa 1989
[phylum]<medley>
TEdit — 1986 Interlisp text-editing tool
[eris]<tedit>
Notecards — 1984–1989: An Interlisp-D-based hypertext system
designed by Randall Trigg, Thomas Moran and Frank Halasz. Main
system in QV, Phylum contains demo data.
http://csis.pace.edu/~marchese/CS835/Readings/7issues.pdf
[phylum]<notecards>,
[qv]<notecards>
Rooms — 1986–1987: An Interlisp-D window manager/workspace
management tool (sources, demo configurations) by Austin Henderson
and Stuart Card
[qv]<rooms>
Trillium — 1987 Nick Briggs' Trillium UI Design Environment project
in Interlisp
[qv]<trillium>
Other (non-Interlisp) Lisp dialects
CD6/franchi/CENTAUR/lelisp/v15.22/* — 1990–1991 Le_Lisp version
15.22, from I.N.R.I.A. This is only the runtime environment for
the SUN 4 OS4 workstations, not the entire system.
[cd6]<franchi>CENTAUR>lelisp>v15.22>
3-LISP — 1988 Smith and Rivieres reflective Lisp
[phylum]<3-lisp>
CommonLisp 1996 — this is actually a snapshot of CMU Spice Lisp from
1984, and was released into the public domain at that time. It was
in fact a basis for Common Lisp — see here for details:
http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/LISP/maclisp_family/#Spice_Lisp_
[eris]<commonlisp>
AI Applications
bluebonnet — 1984 Bluebonnet Expert Help System by Fikes
[phylum]<bluebonnet>,
[qv]<bluebonnet>
IDL — 1989 Ron Kaplan's IDL (Interactive Data Analysis) project
[qv]<idl>
KRL — 1987 snapshot of frame-based knowledge representation language
by Bobrow and Winograd. The project began in the mid-1970s and was a
collaboration between Bobrow at PARC and Winograd at SAIL. See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KRL_%28programming_language%29
[indigo]<krl>
Speech — 1985 Lisp-based code for speech recognition
[eros]<speech>,
[ivy]<speech>,
[phylum]<speech>,
[eris]<speech>
Hardware
The new portions of the archive contain information on the
D-series of successors to the Alto, also created by Chuck Thacker,
Butler Lampson, and other members of the PARC Computer Science
Laboratory (CSL) and Systems Development Division (SDD). These
include the D0 aka Dolphin, the Dorado, the Dandelion, Wildflower,
Daffodil, Daybreak, and Dragon.
D0 — 1985 microcode and test programs (D0 was also known as
Dolphin — not a product except a few Lisp workstations)
[cyan]<d0>
D0Docs — 1985 hardware and microcode documentation for D0
[cyan]<d0docs>
D0Logic — 1985 logic diagrams for D0
[cyan]<d0logic>
D0Source — 1985 more microcode plus source for low-level tools for
D0
[cyan]<d0source>
Daffodil — 1985 logic diagrams and documentation for LSI version of
Dandelion for second version of Star
[indigo]<daffodil>
Dandelion — 1988 files for Extended version of Dandelion processor,
intended to run Cedar
[indigo]<dandelion>
Daybreak — 1990 Dandelion successor (Xerox 6085) — files describe a
SPARC softcard for the 6085
[indigo]<daybreak>
Dicentra — 1982–87 Multibus-based D machine for routers, etc.
[cd8]<dicentra>,
[indigo]<dicentra>
DLion — 1990 snapshot of Cedar(!) and Mesa microcode for various
processors: Dandelion, Daybreak
[indigo]<dlion>
Dorado — 1979–86 microcode for high-performance (ECL) Alto follow-on
[cd8]<dorado>,
[indigo]<dorado>
DoradoBuildDocs — 1989 documentation for cabling, etc. of Dorado
workstations
[io]<doradobuilddocs>
DoradoDocs — 1979–86 documentation for testing, assembling
microcode, etc. of Dorado workstations
[cd8]<doradodocs>,
[indigo]<doradodocs>
DoradoDrawings — 1989 documentation for Dorado hardware — board
layouts?
[io]<doradodrawings>
DoradoLogic — 1989 logic diagrams for Dorado CPU
[io]<doradologic>
DoradoSource — 1979–85 microcode and documentation for Dorado
workstation
[cd8]<doradosource>,
[indigo]<doradosource>
CD8/doradomicrocode/* — 1980–1990 microcode source
code and tools for PARC Dorado workstation
[cd8]<doradomicrocode>
Dragon — 1984–1988 The Dragon computer, VLSI processor
[cd4]<dragon>,
[cd6]<dragon>,
[indigo]<dragon>
Dragon7.0 — 1984–1988 The Dragon computer, VLSI processor
[cd4]<dragon7.0>,
[cd6]<dragon7.0>,
[indigo]<dragon7.0>
DragonWare0.1 1988–9
[cyan]<dragonware0.1>,
[pixel]<dragonware0.1>
OMouse — 1986 Optical mouse
[phylum]<omouse>
CTamarin, Tamarin — 1989 Alan Bell research project to build VLSI
Lisp processor
[phylum]<ctamarin>,
[phylum]<tamarin>
WF — 1984 WildFlower, Butler Lampson's 1978 design sketch for what
became Dandelion
[indigo]<wf>
Design Tools
— see
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/parc/cedar/Cedar_7.0/08_An_Introduction_to_the_DATools_May1987.pdf
CD6/autolayout/* — 1982–1989 Preas and Chow: Placement And Routing
Algorithms For Topological Integrated Circuit Layout
[cd6]<autolayout>
Chipndale — 1984 graphical editor for VLSI layout and schematics
[cd6]<chipndale>,
[indigo]<chipndale>,
[pixel]<chipndale>
Cholla — 1990 Laurel-based IC fabrication line control program.
(Laurel was an email reader developed for the Alto)
[cherry]<cholla>,
[indigo]<cholla>
Crystal — 1985–1986 Cedar transliteration of John
Ousterhout's VLSI worst-case timing program (original in C)
[cyan]<datools6.0>crystal>,
[cyan]<datools6.1>crystal>
DA — 1988 Design Automation Tools
[indigo]<da>
DATools6.0 1985/1986 release of Design Automation tools
[cyan]<datools6.0>
DATools6.1 1986/1987 release of Design Automation tools
[cyan]<datools6.1>
DATools7.0 1987–1990 release of Design Automation tools
[cd4]<datools7.0>,
[cyan]<datools7.0>,
[pixel]<datools7.0>
Rosemary — 1987 A logic simulator
[indigo]<rosemary>
TeleSil — 1986 remote version of Sil. (Sil was Chuck Thacker’s
original drawing editor)
[indigo]<telesil>
Thyme — 1986 A timing tool (similar to SPICE)
[cherry]<thyme>
Beads — 1980–1981 Will Crowther circuit-design program: "Wires is
intended to be the middle phase of a three phase program to
compile logic equations into the masks for nMOS integrated
circuits."
[indigo]<beads>
Chipmonk — 1981–1984 VLSI layout program
[indigo]<chipmonk>
Sakura — 1981 Nori Suzuki and Rod Burstall: "Sakura is a language
for specifying the behaviour of hardware devices. It is based on
Mesa, but has facilities for concurrency which we hope will be
easier to use for hardware description than the Mesa facilities."
[indigo]<sakura>
Alto Historical
The following contains directories related to Alto that were
not included in the previous
Xerox Alto source code archive. (All of these are repeated
from their respective categories above.)
Fiala/BitBlt — 1988 early code and documents from FRED
(Baudelaire font editor), Gypsy (Tesler/Mott editor), etc.
[ivy]<fiala>bitblt>
Mesa — 1989–1990 snapshot of final Alto Mesa (Mesa 6.0?)
[indigo]<mesa>
Press — 1990 original BCPL-based Press printing software (also
on CD8 in previous Alto source code release)
[indigo]<press>
Grapevine — email server (also on CD8 in previous Alto source
code release)
[cyan]<grapevine>,
[indigo]<grapevine>,
[ivy]<grapevine>,
[pixel]<grapevine>
Previously Released
Also included in this release is a CD previously publicly
released and open sourced by Xerox accompanying Xerox PARC
Computer Science Laboratory Technical Report CSL_93-16, and
contains Cedar, Tioga, emacs, fonts, and other source code.
[cdcsl_93-16]<1>cedar>
[cdcsl_93-16]<1>cedarname>
[cdcsl_93-16]<1>emacs>
[cdcsl_93-16]<1>ppcr>
[cdcsl_93-16]<1>readutils>
[cdcsl_93-16]<1>threadsstudypaper>
[cdcsl_93-16]<1>viewtioga>
[cdcsl_93-16]<1>xfonts>
The following is a list of directories included in the original
Xerox Alto source code archive. Some directories may
contain additional files or subdirectories not present in the
earlier archive. Links provided are to the new versions in this
archive.
Alto
[cd8]<alto>
Alto-1822
[indigo]<alto-1822>
AltoDocs
[cd8]<altodocs>
AltoFonts
[indigo]<altofonts>
AltoGateway
[ibis]<altogateway>
AltoSource
[indigo]<altosource>
AltoTape
[cd6]<altotape>,
[indigo]<altotape>
BasicDisks
[cd8]<basicdisks>,
[indigo]<basicdisks>
Bootfiles
[cd8]<bootfiles>
BravoX
[indigo]<bravox>
CSLCopyDisk
[indigo]<cslcopydisk>
DLS
[cd8]<dls>
Dover
[cd6]<dover>
DMS
[indigo]<dms>
Grapevine
[cd8]<grapevine>
IFS
[cd8]<ifs>,
[indigo]<ifs>,
[pixel]<ifs>
Images
[pixel]<images>
Laurel
[cd8]<laurel>
Murray
[io]<murray>
Jasmine
[indigo]<jasmine>
JDS
[indigo]<jds>
PD
[indigo]<pd>
Poppy
[ivy]<poppy>
Press
[cd8]<press>
PressFonts
[indigo]<pressfonts>
PrintingDocs
[cd8]<printingdocs>,
[indigo]<printingdocs>
PUP
[cd8]<pup>
SIL
[cd6]<sil>
Spruce
[indigo]<spruce>
Sweet
[ivy]<sweet>
TapeServer
[cd6]<tapeserver>,
[indigo]<tapeserver>
XMesa
[indigo]<xmesa>
More on the archive
File names
The files in the archive are named according to the conventions
of the Alto Operating System. Each file has a name consisting of
letters (upper and lower case can be used interchangeably),
digits, and any of these special characters: + - . ! $
The name is usually divided into two part by a period: the main
name before the period, and the extension after
the period. A name can also have a version number, which is a
number that comes at the end of the name, preceded by an
exclamation point. For example, in the name "bravomanual.press!2",
the main name is "bravomanual", the extension is "press",
and the version number is 2.
When Alto files were stored on an IFS file server, they were
grouped in directories and subdirectories. A directory name can
contain the same characters as a file name. A directory path is
a list of names of directories, with "<" at the beginning and
">" after each directory name. An example is "<BravoX>Fonts>".
The archive includes files that had been stored on several
different IFS file servers, so a full name for a file specifies
a server (with square brackets around the name), a directory
path, and a file, for example: "[Indigo]<BravoX>NEPTUNE>NEPTUNE-MANUAL.PRESS!2".
The servers present in this archive include Filene, Ibis,
Indigo, Io, Ivy, and Pixel. There are two additional
"pseudo-servers", _cd6_ and _cd8_, corresponding to additional
files that had been restored in an earlier project at Xerox
PARC.
The archive has a web page listing
the servers. For each server there is a web page listing the top
level directories, with an additional web page for each
subdirectory. Each directory page lists subdirectories and files
in separate sections. Each file is generally presented in two
different ways: in a viewable format (e.g., HTML, PDF), and in
its original format (referred to as "raw" in the directory
listings).
Dump/Load files
An Alto file with the extension "dm" or "DM"
is called a Dump/Load file and contains a collection of files,
analogous to a Windows "zip" file or a Unix "tar"
file. In this archive, each Dump/Load file has been unpacked to
a new directory with the same name as the Dump/Load file. For
example, corresponding to "[Indigo]<AltoSource>ALTOUSERSHANDBOOK.DM!2"
is "[Indigo]<AltoSource>ALTOUSERSHANDBOOK.DM!2>".
The corresponding web URL is ".../Indigo/AltoSource/ALTOUSERSHANDBOOK.DM!2_",
with an underscore at the end.
Disk-image files
An Alto file with the extension "altodisk" or "bfs"
or "copydisk" is an image of an entire Alto disk
pack, analogous to an "iso" CD-ROM image. In this
archive, each disk image file has been unpacked to a new
directory with a name based on that of the disk image file. For
example, corresponding to "[Indigo]<BasicDisks>BcplProg.BFS!13"
is "[Indigo]<BasicDisks>BcplProg.BFS!13>".
The corresponding web URL is ".../Indigo/BasicDisks/BcplProg.BFS!13_",
with an underscore at the end.
Viewable formats
Many of the files (such as most of the program source code
files) consisted of ASCII text; each of these has been rendered
as an HTML file with a <pre> element
surrounding the body of the file. Some files (such as
documentation, memos, and, sometimes, program source code) were
created by the Bravo word processor, which embedded formatting
information along with the text. Each of these files has been
rendered as an HTML file that uses CSS styles to mimic the
intended Bravo formatting (such as font changes, bold and
italic, and indentation). Some files originally created by
document editors such as Bravo had been converted to the Press
device-independent print file format. Each of these has been
rendered as a PDF file that attempts to mimic the intended Press
formatting (including font changes, bold and italic, etc.) and
graphical elements (including rectangles, Bezier curves, and
scanned images). All other files have been rendered as an "octal
dump" of up to the first 100,000 bytes, using the Unix command
line "od -t oC -N 100000".
The renderings of Bravo and Press files is still buggy and
incomplete, but in most cases is good enough to convey the
intended content. In particular, support is lacking for the
various Alto fonts: encodings, metrics (widths), and glyphs. The
Bravo document profile is currently ignored, as are named tabs.
Press graphics — rectangles, dots, and objects (filled paths
consisting of straight and curved line segements) — are
supported.
Tioga documents, rich text documents that combine text and
graphics used in the Cedar/Mesa environment for both formatted
publications as well as source code, have also been converted
into HTML, preserving much of the original formatting, fonts and
styles. The converter lacks support for embedded graphics and
proper table alignment, which would require using a more
sophisticated JaM parser. It does, however, support math and
Greek symbols. Much of the logic for the converter was borrowed
from <_cdcsl_93-16_>1>viewtioga>.
Thanks to Josh Dersch for writing the converter, and Paul
McJones for integrating the code into the restore_alto_files
tool to automatically generate these web pages. A separate
converter to convert Tioga files into Unicode-standard plain
text, for compatibility with Unix-based tools such as Git, was
also created by Dersch and integrated into restore_alto_files
by McJones, so Tioga files are viewable either in a rich text
form, a modern plain text form, or their original Xerox-era raw
format.
There should be viewers for Sil documents and fonts (.al and
.strike for the screen and various formats for the printer — see
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/alto/printing/).
Raw files: endianness
Each link of the form (raw) in the directory listings gives
access to the original sequence of bytes for the corresponding
file. This will only be of use when you understand the file type
for that file. Note that the Alto had 16-bit words, and was
"big-endian": the high-order byte of a 16-bit word is stored at
an even byte address, and the low-order byte of the same word is
stored at the next higher odd byte address.
File types
Often, the type of the file can be determined from the
extension in the file's name. Here is a short glossary of file
types:
- .al
- Alto screen font represented as a bitmap for each character
- .altodisk
- See .bfs
- .asm
- Alto assembler source program
- .bcd
- Relocatable object file created by Mesa compiler
- .bcpl
- BCPL source program
- .bfs
- Contents of a complete Alto disk pack represented as a file
- .boot
- A file from which an Alto can be boot-loaded (operating
system, utility, etc.)
- .bootmesa
- A configuration file used by the Mesa linker to build a
bootfile
- .br
- Relocatable object file created by BPCL compiler
- .bravo
- Document created by Bravo word processor (viewable as HTML
in the archive)
- .cm
- Command file interpreted by Alto Executive
- .copydisk
- See .bfs
- .d
- BCPL definitions, incorporated into a program via a get
statement
- .decl
- alias for .d
- .dm
- DumpLoad file, packaging a set of files
- .image
- Executable form of program written in Mesa (started with
RunMesa.run)
- .jam
- files interpreted by the device-independent page description
language JaM, precursor to Interpress
- .laurel
- Relocatable object file created by Mesa compiler intended as
an add-on to the Laurel mail client application
- .mac
- Tenex PDP-10 assembly language
- .mc
- Microcode assembler source program — specifically for D0
?????
- .mesa
- Mesa source program
- .mu
- Alto microcode assembler source program
- .press
- Device-independent print-ready file, created by various
applications (viewable as PDF in the archive)
- .pub
- Document prepared as input to PUB formatting program
(running on PDP-10 rather than Alto)
- .run
- Executable form of program written in BCPL and/or assembler
(created by BLDR)
- .strike
- Another format for Alto screen font, optimized for use with
BitBlt (bit-boundary block transfer)
- .symbols
- Symbolic debugging information associated with a Mesa .image
file
- .syms
- Symbolic debugging information assocatiated with a BCPL .run
file
- .tioga
- Document created by Cedar/Mesa's WYSIWYG word processor
Tioga (viewable as HTML in the archive)
Authors
The metadata accompanying each file includes a field called “Author.”
Note that this does not necessarily name the person who originally created the file;
it apparently specifies the user name in effect when the file was transferred to the IFS server.
Provenance
The files in this archive originally lived on a set of IFS file
servers at Xerox PARC. Over the years various techniques were
used to archive the files to offline storage, in the form of
9-track magnetic tapes. First this was done via a program called
BSYS running on MAXC, which was a computer that ran the TENEX
operating system. Later this was replaced by a program called
Archivist that ran on a Dorado (a much-faster successor to the
Alto), which allowed a user to specify a set of files to be
archived. By around 1991 the IFS servers and the Archivist
program were no longer being used, and a new suite of programs
were written to transfer files from the old 9-track tapes to 8mm
digital tape cartridges, preserving the original record
structure as defined by the Archivist program but including one
extra record consisting of a file named rosetta.tar containing,
as explained in a README file:
... the C sources for the programs used to read the
maxc and archivist 9 track, 1/2" tapes, the shell scripts used
to drive those programs during the transfer of the 9 track, 1/2"
tape data to the 8mm tapes, and the Cedar/Mesa sources for the
Archivist program which was originally used to archive the data
to 9 track, 1/2" tape.
In 2003, Al Kossow, working as an independent consultant to
PARC, transferred the 8mm tapes to a set of DVD-ROMs, copying
each as a complete sequence of records. Furthermore, he copied a
subset of the records consisting mainly of Alto-related software
and documentation onto a separate CD-ROM. In 2011, Xerox PARC
donated this CD-ROM to the Computer History Museum, as catalog
number 102706061,
lot X6195.2011.
In addition to the copies of the Archivist records, that CD-ROM
included two additional directories, cd6 and cd8, extracted from
two CD-ROMs that had been restored from archived files at some
time before 2003. Starting in the fall of 2013, Paul McJones
wrote a program named restore_alto_files to read the archive
tape images, unpack Alto Dump/Load files and Alto disk images,
and create web pages for browsing the directories and CDs and
viewing various file types (including Bravo and Press). The
resultant web site was released in 2014 as xeroxalto.computerhistory.org.
In 2018, PARC and CHM agreed to extend the 2011 agreement to
include a much larger subset of the IFS files, covering much of
the 1980s (the earlier Alto release had focused on the 1970s).
Paul McJones agreed to work under NDA to review the full list of
IFS files, propose a subset to PARC for release to CHM, and once
that subset was refined and approved, to extract them and put
them in an appropriate form for transfer to CHM. This new
donation constitutes this present archive, and has been
catalogued 102791364, lot X8506.2018.
Here are copies of rosetta.tar.gz
and restore_alto_files.tar.gz.
