ALAN@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU (Alan Bawden) (01/31/86)
Date: 23-Jan-86 12:52:19-PST
From: jbn at FORD-WDL1
... Contrast this with Minksy's recent claims seen here that airline
reservation systems were invented by someone at the MIT AI lab in the
1960s.
I decided to take a close look at this contrast. After searching through
the recent archives, the only mention by Minsky of airline reservation
systems that I can find is:
And I'm pretty sure that the first practical airline reservation was
designed by Danny Bobrow of the BBN AI group around 1966.!
Now that I have refreshed my memory with what he actually said, I think the
contrast is not quite as unflattering. Given the use of the adjective
``practical'', someone might even be able to make a case that he is right.ailist@ucbvax.UUCP (02/20/86)
From: decvax!utzoo!dciem!mmt@ucbvax.berkeley.edu > Date: 23-Jan-86 12:52:19-PST > From: jbn at FORD-WDL1 > ... Contrast this with Minksy's recent claims seen here that airline > reservation systems were invented by someone at the MIT AI lab in the > 1960s. > >I decided to take a close look at this contrast. After searching through >the recent archives, the only mention by Minsky of airline reservation >systems that I can find is: > > And I'm pretty sure that the first practical airline reservation was > designed by Danny Bobrow of the BBN AI group around 1966.! > >Now that I have refreshed my memory with what he actually said, I think the >contrast is not quite as unflattering. Given the use of the adjective >``practical'', someone might even be able to make a case that he is right. The case would not be watertight. Air Canada was using a reservation system developed at Ferranti Electric Inc., (a Toronto-based firm not to be confused with Ferranti in UK), running on a redundant computer system called Gemini, from 1961 for about 10 years until it was replaced. It did all the things one associates with computerized reservation systems, and was used by reservation clerks to deal with the public, so I guess you could call it "practical." Incidentally, this system led to the development of what may be the first fully commercial time-sharing computer system (I mean memory-protected, independent multi-user multitasking), the FP-6000, which was first delivered around the end of 1962 or the beginning of 1963. The design for that machine formed the basis of the ICL 1900 series in the UK. It, like the airline reservations system, was a totally Canadian design (if you will forgive the chauvinism). Martin Taylor Martin Taylor {allegra,linus,ihnp4,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt {uw-beaver,qucis,watmath}!utcsri!dciem!mmt