From: ···@sef-pmax.slisp.cs.cmu.edu
Subject: Re: Thirty-year-old LISP book
Date:
Message-ID: <CMB46I.J9L.2@cs.cmu.edu>
From: ········@ec2226.addvax.llnl.gov
LISP After 30 years-- an early text book on LISP published just 30 years
ago.
Perhaps I'm a bit of a pack-rat. This thing has been lying in my office
for years. I have no use for the book, but rather than destroy what
might be interesting to someone, I will ask about its possible
value. Requests or suggestions to ·········@llnl.gov
Never destroy something like this. In addition to its historical interest,
it may be valuable evidence in case the patent office decides to grant
someone a patent on the idea of the linked list, or garbage-collection, or
whatever. These old documents (though maybe not *this* old) are becoming
very valuable to individuals and companies who need to demonstrate that a
particular software technique was in widespread public use before Company X
"invented" and patented it.
I don't know if anyone is building a public repository of of old manuals
and papers for the specific purpose of establishing prior art in software
patent cases, but someone ought to do this.
-- Scott
===========================================================================
Scott E. Fahlman Internet: ····@cs.cmu.edu
Senior Research Scientist Phone: 412 268-2575
School of Computer Science Fax: 412 681-5739
Carnegie Mellon University Latitude: 40:26:33 N
5000 Forbes Avenue Longitude: 79:56:48 W
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
===========================================================================
In article <············@cs.cmu.edu>
···@sef-pmax.slisp.cs.cmu.edu writes:
>
>
> From: ········@ec2226.addvax.llnl.gov
>
> LISP After 30 years-- an early text book on LISP published just 30 years
> ago.
>
> Perhaps I'm a bit of a pack-rat. This thing has been lying in my office
> for years. I have no use for the book, but rather than destroy what
> might be interesting to someone, I will ask about its possible
> value. Requests or suggestions to ·········@llnl.gov
>
>Never destroy something like this. In addition to its historical interest,
>it may be valuable evidence in case the patent office decides to grant
>someone a patent on the idea of the linked list, or garbage-collection, or
>whatever. These old documents (though maybe not *this* old) are becoming
>very valuable to individuals and companies who need to demonstrate that a
>particular software technique was in widespread public use before Company X
>"invented" and patented it.
>
>I don't know if anyone is building a public repository of of old manuals
>and papers for the specific purpose of establishing prior art in software
>patent cases, but someone ought to do this.
>
>-- Scott
>
>===========================================================================
>Scott E. Fahlman Internet: ····@cs.cmu.edu
>Senior Research Scientist Phone: 412 268-2575
>School of Computer Science Fax: 412 681-5739
>Carnegie Mellon University Latitude: 40:26:33 N
>5000 Forbes Avenue Longitude: 79:56:48 W
>Pittsburgh, PA 15213
>===========================================================================
>
>
Several years ago the IEEE and other groups founded the Charles Babbage
Institute at the University of Minnesota, for history of computer science.
I believe they maintain archives, historical library, and museum, but I have
never been there and don't know what they have. They do have an email address,
though, so if you are interested you could contact them at ···@vx.cis.umn.edu.
Another reason not to discard old computer materials is that since people are
becoming interested in the history of computing, there are more people interes-
ted in collecting old computer materials. There is at least one book dealer
specializing in computing books of historical interest -- I forget the name but
I think he has advertised in some issues of the "Annals of the History of
Computing", (since 1992 the "IEEE Annals of the History of Computing").
Bob Michaelson
········@nwu.edu
In article <··················@NUACVM.ACNS.NWU.EDU> ········@nuacvm.acns.nwu.edu writes:
From: ········@nuacvm.acns.nwu.edu
Newsgroups: misc.books.technical,comp.lang.lisp
Date: Mon, 07 Mar 94 13:29:45 CDT
Another reason not to discard old computer materials is that since people are
becoming interested in the history of computing, there are more people interes-
ted in collecting old computer materials.
I've also noticed prices rising on 50s-vintage computer books, occasionally
even into the $200 range now. Perhaps some day an original Lisp 1.5 manual
will fetch $20,000 at Sotheby's?
BTW, I do have an nth-generation copy of the Lisp book, as well as other
(copies of) old volumes of Lisp interest. Nothing in danger of
disintegrating physically, but I suspect some of the infrastructure may
be gone or hard to track down, in particular OS minutiae that you would
have to know in order to understand the source code...
Stan Shebs
Cygnus Support
·····@cygnus.com