On Sun, 2026-03-01 at 16:09 -0600, Steve Lewis via cctalk wrote: > Well, I just learned today about the 1959 IBM term "squozed" (maybe > some > comical combination of squeezed and frozen). > > Apparently it was some kind of "compression" form of the punch card > content > (maybe something more like "raw machine code" than source code? but > in any > case, the intent was to help load/init the system faster) The term > may > have been slightly before 1959, but I'm seeing it in some IBM > catalogs of > 1959.
"Squoze" was a text compression scheme. Sequences of more than two blanks (or was it four?) were replaced by counters. Characters and counters were then were stored continuously, even across input card boundaries. then punched in column binary. "Squoze" decks were later called "Prest" decks. The first column had a 7/9 punch. The second column was an odd-parity checksum of columns 3-72. 73-76 had a sequence number. 77-80 had ID. One program to uncompress them (maybe not the original 7094 "squoze" format) is at https://vandyke.mynetgear.com/1401/cards/progs/ReadCB_m.f90 and .../CardList.f90 and .../ListCB.f90 I used it on IBM 7094/7044 DCOS IBSYS to input a 6-tray program in one tray. Compilers accepted plain text (not column binary) correction cards between the deck header and the first column binary card. They included a switch to punch a new "squoze" deck. Later I used it to move programs from the Univac 1108 at work to the Varian V-73 at school. My brother was a jazz musician. One day he called and asked what I was doing. I said "writing a program do de-press a deck." He asked "why don't you just sing it a sad song?" — Van > -Steve > > > > On Sun, Mar 1, 2026 at 3:53 PM Paul Koning <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > > > > > On Mar 1, 2026, at 4:32 PM, Steve Lewis via cctalk < > > [email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > Well, to clarify - my "amazement" was more the idea of developing > > > OS > > > software using paper (not as much the loading of one from paper, > > > though > > > that is still a "glad I didn't have to do that" thing :). > > > > There's a nice description, I think in Gauthier van den Hove's > > thesis, of > > the process used for the creation of the world's first full ALGOL > > 60 > > compiler, by Dijkstra and Zonneveld. The two of them did this in > > about 6 > > months, which included having to invent a number of core elements > > of > > parsing technology since they did not exist yet. > > > > They would sit at a table, assembly language coding form in hand. > > One of > > them would propose the next line of code, the other would agree or > > they > > would discuss it if needed, and repeat for the next line. Those > > forms were > > then handed to punch operators to be converted into 5-channel tape > > punched > > in the odd code that the assembler (also by Dijkstra, part of his > > Ph.D. > > thesis work) could read. > > > > Amazing stuff. Also amazing is that, after several years of > > production > > use, only two wrong-code bugs were discovered, both for highly > > exotic cases. > > > > > So I'd characterize early OS development (meaning like 1956-1961) > > > as: > > > developed "in memory" (e.g. CTSS is said to have been written in > > FAP/MAD), > > > then the program exported to punch card (or punched tape-- fan > > > tape > > being a > > > bit later and fairly exclusive to the "DEC" ecosystem, as it > > > were). > > Once > > > verified "yeah this kind of works", maybe that code quickly > > > migrated over > > > to magtape (bearing it mind this was all pre-ASCII standards). > > > But one > > > would need some kind of "bootloader" to then initiate it from > > > magtape. > > > > Early PDP-11 software development was done on PDP-10 timesharing > > systems, > > including running it in simulation (MIMIC -- a precursor of SIMH). > > The > > resulting bits would then go to paper tape, I'm pretty sure, to be > > loaded > > into the target machine. That might in fact be a paper tape only > > system, > > or if it was RSTS it would have disks but the initial OS load would > > be > > paper tape. > > > > Not all that long after, DECtape would typically be the OS > > distribution > > medium. I'm not sure if those were created on PDP-10 systems; > > there was > > FILEX to do that, but I don't know when that appeared. > > > > By the time RSTS/E V5B arrived, development was on RSTS itself. I > > don't > > know about V4A; system build (SYSGEN) used DOS, but it's hard to > > imagine > > people doing software development on that sorry excuse for an > > operating > > system. > > > > paul > > > > > >
