this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2025
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463
Bell Labs 'Unix' Tape from 1974 Successfully Dumped to a Tarball (tech.slashdot.org)
submitted 2 months ago by sundray@lemmus.org to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] truthfultemporarily@feddit.org 95 points 2 months ago (5 children)

They wrote this without googling anything.

[–] mech@feddit.org 56 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They wrote this without autocompletion or syntax highlighting.

[–] Nanook@lemmy.zip 33 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They had PAPER NOTEBOOKS cheats

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 13 points 2 months ago

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

[–] bigfondue@lemmy.world 33 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months 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 2 months ago (1 children)

The modern world was born in NJ

* looks at modern world *

Yeah, that tracks.

[–] bigfondue@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months 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 2 months 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 2 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 11 points 2 months 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 2 months 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 2 months 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 2 months ago

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

[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Or they just drop the =

[–] bigfondue@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months 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 2 months ago

They were chatting with ELIZA and vibe coded the whole thing