====== ITS - Incompatible Timesharing System ======

ITS is a timesharing system created at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in 1967 for their PDP-6 computer.  It was soon moved to the newer PDP-10; for most of its life ITS ran on four of those machines.  ITS is known for it's lack of security (no passwords, no file permissions), using a debugger as the login shell, and pioneering many famous programs.

The SDF ITS is at https://hactrn.org/ and is running on a KA10 emulator with an attached PDP-11 for serving Knight TV raster graphics terminals.

Some basic tutorials:

  * [[its_hactrn|HACTRN survival guide]]
  * [[its_user|Adding a new ITS user]]
  * [[https://github.com/larsbrinkhoff/its-manual/wiki|New ITS manual in the works]]

More information can be found by running **INFO**, and [[https://github.com/PDP-10/its/blob/master/README.md#documentation|on GitHub]].

Bootcamp ideas:

  * Log in and create your own user directory.  Hint: see “basic tutorials” above.
  * Run '':INFO INFO'' to learn how to read the system documentation. Read “INTRO” to learn some ITS basics.  List all the files in the INFO directory.
  * Create a file using EMACS.  Hint1 '':INFO EMACS''.  Hint2 '':TEACHEMACS''.
  * Start several jobs in parallel and switch between them.  Hint1: ''^Z''.  Hint2: ''$J''.  Hint3: ''$P''.  Hint4: ''$$V''.
  * Write, compile, link, and run a small C program.  Hint1: ''.INFO.; CC RECENT''.  Hint2: ''C; CDOC >''
  * Learn PDP-10 programming with '':INFO PDP-10''.  Do one of the examples.  Hint '':INFO MIDAS''
  * Get 50 points in Zork.  Hint1: ''ZORK^K''.  Hint2: ''score''.
  * Compute the derivative and integral of an expression in Macsyma.  Hint1: '':MACSYMA''
  * Write a function in Maclisp to print “hello world”.  Hint1: ''LISP^K''.  Hint2: '':INFO LISP''.
  * Learn about Lisp from the automated tutor: '':teach;lisp''.

Suggested topics to explore:

  * Zork and Advent, classic text adventure games.
  * Emacs, the first version.
  * Maclisp and Scheme, major Lisp dialects.
  * Macsyma, symbolic math.
  * Logo, programming for kids.
  * C, pre-K&R version.
  * Muddle, the Dynamic Modeling programming language.
  * Maze, the 3D first person shooter (needs an Imlac emulator).