File:Walden, David and Van Vleck - The Compatible Time-Sharing System (1961-1973).pdf

The editors, David Walden and Tom Van Vleck, compiled this booklet on MIT's compatible time-sharing system (CTSS) to mark the 50th anniversary of its first demonstration in 1961. Time-sharing had the short-term advantage of maximizing use of expensive mainframe and mini computers, and the long-term consequences of pioneering "personal computing," networked computing that enabled collaborations among multiple users. Walden and Van Vleck review the origins of CTSS in the context of the state of computing in the late 1950s and early 1960s; the interaction of the available hardware with the software developed for CTSS, Project MAC, Multics, and various applications and uses; and the roles of MIT faculty, students, alumni, and corporations including IBM and BBN. Interviews or recollections by eight of the first participants, including Fernando Corbató and Marjorie Daggett, follow, along with a substantial bibliography containing URLs to primary documents.