[ih] David C. Walden

[Bernie Cosell]

On 3 May 2022 at 16:26, Jack Haverty via Internet-history wrote:

Date:        	Tue, 3 May 2022 16:26:20 -0700
To:          	internet-history at elists.isoc.org
Subject:     	Re: [ih] David C. Walden
From:        	Jack Haverty via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org>
Reply to:    	Jack Haverty <jack at 3kitty.org>
Sender:      	"Internet-history" <internet-history-bounces at elists.isoc.org>

> Dave's obituary is at:
> 
> https://www.olsonparent.com/obituary/David-Walden
> 
> In addition to everything else, Dave was one of the original ARPANET 
> implementation team.  He actually "wrote the code" to create the net. 

I joined the IMP project of Jan 1969 -- Dave and Will had started on the IMP 
proposal in the fall of '68.  I was tied up on another project and joined when the 
contract was actually awarded -- in Jan.  Dave and Will had been working on 
chunks of the IMP code with paper tape -- I have no idea how they were editing 
the tapes nor how it worked.  I do know that they almost *never* reassembled 
any of the code {because it was real hard :o)} and so Will had a big notebook with 
the official "patch log".   I was responsible for the timesharing system on our 
PDP-1 [part of the Hospital Computer Project, and it stayed at BBN when the 
project ended] and I was anal about having correct listings.   There was a 
potential serious clash of cultures when i joined.  I discovered, to my pleasant 
surprise, that Dave didn't like all the paper tape stuff much either.  And so we 
hatched a plan.  We *knew* that Frank [Heart] and Will would _never_ have 
OK'ed our messing with how the IMP was coded and assembled.

So.. dave and I just _did_it_ [you know the old saw about forgiveness vs 
permission :o)].  We started on one Friday late afternoon and began "porting" -- I 
had cobbled up a cross-assembler on the PDP-1 that could punch out an 
H516-loadable paper tape, and we copied all the paper tapes over to the PDP-1 
and edited the cumulative patches into the PDP-1 source files.  Then we tried to 
make it all work [I vaguely remember that it took a few iterations for the two of 
us to get it actually loadable and working].... BUT... Dave and I worked well 
together and we pulled it all off -- when the folks came in on Monday morning 
there was a fresh, new system with a full correct listing waiting.   I never learned 
what Will thought about that -- I think he just took it as a fait accompli.  I know 
that Frank never said a word to us about it.   Dave and I stayed close friends 
throughout my tenure at BBN.   He was my longest time colleague and best 
friend at BBN.

  /Bernie\


                 Bernie Cosell
         bernie at fantasyfarm.com
-- Too many people; too few sheep --