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FIRST EDITION OF THE 1st PRESENTATION of CTSS, the "Compatible Time-Sharing System" operating system written by a team of MIT programmers led by Prof. Fernando J. Corbato. Their work "helped pave the way for the personal computer, as well as the computer password" (Hafner, Fernando Corbató, a Father of Your Computer (and Your Password), July 12, 2019 Obituary). "At a time when computing was done in large batches, and users typically had to wait until the next day to get the results of a computation, CTSS allowed multiple users in different locations to access a single computer simultaneously through telephone lines" (IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Oct.-Dec. 2015, pp. 5-9, vol. 37). This particular volume was once the property of Jean E. Sammet, an American computer scientist, and bears his name on the front flyleaf. "In a 1963 public television interview, Dr. Corbató described batch processing as "infuriating" for its inefficiency. The advent of time-sharing, however, reinforced the notion, still in its infancy, that computers could be used interactively. It was an idea that would animate the computing field for decades. "Long before personal computers made it possible for each person to have a computer, time-sharing transformed the way people used computers," said Stephen Crocker, a computer scientist and internet pioneer who worked on time-sharing systems" (ibid). Corbató's role in the development of CTSS was critical to its success. "In 1990, Corbató received the Turing Award "for his pioneering work in organizing the concepts and leading the development of the general-purpose, large-scale, time-sharing and resource-sharing computer systems," and he was made a fellow of the Computer History Museum (CHM) in 2012" (IEEE). CONDITION & DETAILS: Complete volume. AFIPS: American Federation of Information Processing Societies. 4to. 11.25 x 8.5 inches. [18], 392, [2]. Illustrated throughout. Very slight scuffing at the edge tips. Bright and clean. Near fine. Provenance: Jean E. Sammet, an American computer scientist.
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