CUCPS 1998-1999

In the academic year 1998-1999 CUCPS held the following talks, in the Hopkinson lecture theatre on the New Museums Site.

• On 20th October 1998, Sophie Wilson spoke to an audience of 22 about Acorn from the BBC to the ARM.
• On 17th November 1998, Philip Hazel spoke to an audience of 14 about Text Editing in Cambridge. Philip Hazel has been involved in Cambridge text editing for over 25 years, writing the original E4 editor for Phoenix one weekend in January 1972, followed by EDIT version 2 in June 1973, ZED in 1978, E in 1985, and NE in 1994. The Specification of ZED (SPEC.ZED) (HTML 162k) is available here. Source and binaries of the NE editor (a C port of E) are available from ftp://ftp.cus.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programs/NE/. The sources of ZED (written in IBM assembler) are available during Cambridge termtime from http://jsm28.trin.cam.ac.uk/data/ZED/.
• On 24th November 1998, Alasdair Grant spoke to an audience of 20 about Networking before the Internet, covering protocols such as the Coloured Books that had formerly been used in Cambridge and elsewhere; exhibits included an Ethernet controller for Phoenix.
• On 19th January 1999, Chris Cheney (head of the Network Division in the University Computing Serivce) spoke to an audience of 12 on The Granta Backbone Network. The Granta Backbone Network (GBN) is the underground duct and fibre-optic cable network that was installed between 1989 and 1992 to link together the major University and College sites. The GBN provides the infrastructure for the CU Data Network (CUDN) and is also used for various University Telephone Network, security and institutional links. Samples of ducting and cables of the type used in the GBN were passed round at the talk, which discussed the physical cables and network details, the problems encountered (both technical and political) in laying the ducting, and futures in networking in Cambridge (including charging for use of the transatlantic link).
• On 23rd February 1999, at 6pm in room TP4 in the Computer Laboratory, Chris Hadley showed an audience of 9 some of the CL's Relics collection of items related to past computing in Cambridge that have accumulated in the Laboratory. Some items can be seen in display cases in that room and elsewhere permanently; more may be on permanent display when the CL moves to a new building.
• On 9th March 1999, Ian Jackson spoke to an audience of 18 on Introduction to Phoenix. This talk is best described by the speaker's blurb:

  This talk will be a general introduction to the University's IBM 3084Q mainframe, Phoenix, RIP. It will aim to be in the style of the talks on the subject which were given annually in Michaelmas by the Computer Society.

  Topics to be covered will probably include

  • Files and filespaces on Phoenix, including quotas, archive filespaces, etc.
  • Phoenix HELP;
  • Electronic mail;
  • File transfer over JANET, uk.ac.ft-relay, etc.;
  • Batch jobs, and the use of magnetic tapes for bulk storage;
  • Procedure libraries;
  • The CUCS Library CUCSLIB, including `TALK';
  • GROGGS and Zinque

  and others.

  In the best traditions of the CUCS Introductions to Phoenix, this talk will probably be full of technical inaccuracies and half-remembered details. Experienced Phoenix users are encouraged to attend and heckle.

• On 27th April 1999, Professor Maurice Wilkes spoke to an audience of 20 on The Pioneering Days on Computing in Cambridge, describing the early days on computing in Cambridge, from differential analysers to how he came to design and, with his team, build the EDSAC, which began operating on the 6th of May 1949. The EDSAC has a claim to being the first stored program electronic digital computer that was actually useful for real work (rather than as an experiment in computer design and building). The EDSAC film (made in 1951, with a commentary added 25 years later) was shown again at this meeting.

Minutes of the AGM of 9 March 1999, which took just one minute and fifty-five seconds, are also available.

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