this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2025
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466
Bell Labs 'Unix' Tape from 1974 Successfully Dumped to a Tarball (tech.slashdot.org)
submitted 1 month ago by sundray@lemmus.org to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] truthfultemporarily@feddit.org 95 points 1 month ago (5 children)

They wrote this without googling anything.

[–] mech@feddit.org 57 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They wrote this without autocompletion or syntax highlighting.

[–] Nanook@lemmy.zip 34 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They had PAPER NOTEBOOKS cheats

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 13 points 1 month ago

They also used the classic they knew what they were doing shortcut.

[–] bigfondue@lemmy.world 32 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

It's actually really easy when you get to make everything up as you go along. Like the transistor, and C, and Unix. That place was something else. The modern world was born in NJ

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The modern world was born in NJ

* looks at modern world *

Yeah, that tracks.

[–] bigfondue@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yea I thought about having 'for better for worse' in the post, but I lived in NJ so I'll let them have a little glory for once

[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 27 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Hello World in 1974: echo.c

main(argc, argv)
int argc;
char *argv[];
{
	int i;

	argc--;
	for(i=1; i<=argc; i++)
		printf("%s%c", argv[i], i==argc? '\n': ' ');
}
[–] ZoteTheMighty@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Bloat, they wasted an extra integer operation with argc--.

[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I think it's actually quite elegant. No matter what it has to skip over argument 0 which will be the executable name echo.
If the subtraction was removed and the loop changed to <, it would then need to do an addition or subtraction inside the loop to check if it's the last argument.

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The real question might be whether the compiler was smart enough to change var++ and var-- into ++var and --var when the initial values aren't needed.

As compiler optimisations go, it's a fairly obvious one, but it was 1974 and putting checks like that in the compiler would increase its size and slow it down when both space and time were at a premium.

[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 7 points 1 month ago

Well, good news, the source code is right there. Someone can go check (it probably won't be me)

[–] a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

I was going to guess the same regarding the time period.

[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Or they just drop the =

[–] bigfondue@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

If you had a question about C, you would just consult K&R, and I don't mean the book

[–] BreadstickNinja@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

They were chatting with ELIZA and vibe coded the whole thing