[ih] Saving IETF history

[Dave Walden]

I assume it was always public since the listing itself was public -- for a
small shipping fee we sent a mag tape of the listing to people who
requested it. I worked on the similar TIP documentation while watching the
Watergate hearings on TV.
The imp doc has been very useful as my memory got weaker.

On Thu, May 13, 2021, 2:59 PM Toerless Eckert <tte at cs.fau.de> wrote:

> So who would back in the day read this documentation, and at which point in
> time did it become "public" ?
>
> If it was produced grudgingly and maybe not even read by government folks
> funding the project, one can still be very happy about at that point in
> time
> maybe seemingly useless bureaucracy now. Very interesting read.
>
> Cheers
>     Toerless
>
>
> On Thu, May 13, 2021 at 09:30:21AM -0400, dave walden via Internet-history
> wrote:
> > The 1973 IMP had extensive documentation although not for the purpose of
> a
> > patent dispute and not exactly for the same listing version as we were
> > analyzing.
> > See
> https://walden-family.com/impcode/IMPSYS-Document-with-flowcharts.pdf
> > and'
> > https://walden-family.com/impcode/Technical_Information_Report_89.pdf
> > These also are now archived at the Software History Center of the
> Computer
> > History Museum.
> >
> > Such documentation was not our normal practice.  It was required one
> year by
> > whichever government person was managing our contract --- for a purpose
> I do
> > not remember.  More normally, the documentation was the listing and in
> the
> > memory of the program maintainer.
> >
> >
> > On 5/12/2021 11:21 PM, Toerless Eckert via Internet-history wrote:
> > > Thanks for the story, Jack.
> > >
> > > Given how much of a believer in good public documentation i am,
> however curious:
> > >
> > > Was the functionality in question well enough publically documented
> with
> > > according early dates ? I suspect not befcause i would be surprised if
> the documentation
> > > would not have been good enough, if it existed. After all, most
> patents are also graanted
> > > without evidence that they work, so its patenting of concept, not
> evidence
> > > thereof (which might have been different in decades before my time
> though..).
> > >
> > > Cheers
> > >      Toerless
> > >
> > >
> > --
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>
> --
> ---
> tte at cs.fau.de
>