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About the seminar
Even the Manchester Baby needed software in order to operate (though not very much of it). From the earliest, software was vital, but much of the early material has been lost. Some bits do survive often as printer listings, or on obsolete media. The CCS's software preservation activity seeks to preserve such software as turns up from time-to-time so that it can be understood by present and future generations as genuine historical artefacts.
At its most basic, a piece of software is only a sequence of bits that was loaded into a computer in order to be executed. It is easy to store such a sequence as a byte-stream in a file in a modern machine, and be confident that this can survive indefinitely. Such preservation will be futile unless it is accompanied by material that allows it to be made relevant to today's and tomorrow's audiences. Such preservation will be impossible if we do not capture the sequence of bits from its surviving printout, paper tape, magtape or whatever. Technically retention is easy, but the politics needed to ensure longevity are less so.
The lecture will discuss the nature of interfaces to historic software that are needed in order to make it relevant today, and describe progress to date, both in regard to rescue and relevance and with reference to George3, KDF9 Algol and Leo III Intercode. Ambitions for retention will also get some coverage.
About the speaker
David Holdsworth worked in the computer centre at Leeds University for over 30 years, laterly with involvement with long-term digital storage initiatives. He is now retired, and works voluntarily on software preservation with the CCS.
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