Development of systems software for the Ferut computer at the University of Toronto, 1952 to 1955

Author

Hume, J. N Patterson

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput. Sci., Toronto Univ., Ont., Canada

Volume

16

Issue

2

fYear

1994

Firstpage

13

Lastpage

19

Abstract

The Ferut computer was a copy of the Mark 1 computer at the University of Manchester. Two years after its delivery in Toronto, systems software had been developed to vastly enlarge the community of users. To go from a few dedicated programmers patient enough to deal with the extremely difficult machine code to a situation where anyone with two hours to spare could program successfully was a major advance. This article retraces the steps in this pioneering experiment in automatic programming, in which the author played a central role.<>

Keywords

automatic programming; digital computers; history; software engineering; software tools; systems software; Ferut computer; Mark 1 computer; University of Toronto; automatic programming; dedicated programmers; digital computer; machine code; systems software development; Automatic programming; Computer aided manufacturing; Electron tubes; Hardware; Operating systems; Physics computing; Programming profession; Springs; System software; Teleprinting;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Annals of the History of Computing, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1058-6180

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/85.279227

Filename

279227