Guide to the Paul R. DesJardins collection
Finding aid prepared by Bo Doug, Kim Hayden, and Sara Chabino Lott
Processing of this collection was made possible through generous funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered
through the Council on Library and Information Resources' Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives grant.
Computer History Museum
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA, 94043
(650) 810-1010
research@computerhistory.org
April 2017
Title: Paul R. DesJardins collection
Identifier/Call Number: X4578.2008
Contributing Institution:
Computer History Museum
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
12.5 Linear feet,
10 record cartons
Date (bulk): Bulk, 1956-1993
Date (inclusive): 1947-2003
Abstract: The Paul R. DesJardins collection documents DesJardins’s career as a programmer, with material dating from 1947 to 2003, and
the bulk from 1956 to 1993. A large portion of the collection is related to the development of the time-sharing system RUSH,
and to PL/I, the programming language used for RUSH. DesJardins was the principal designer of RUSH when he worked at Allen-Babcock
Computing. Also included is a smaller amount of material created and collected by DesJardins when he worked at North American
Aviation and Nucleus International. Lastly, the collection contains various publications collected by DesJardins that include
technical papers, newsletters, conference and seminar proceedings, manuals, reference guides, specifications, and promotional
material.
creator:
DesJardins, Paul
Access Restrictions
The collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
The Computer History Museum (CHM) can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying
any claims of the copyright holder. Requests for copying and permission to publish, quote, or reproduce any portion of the
Computer History Museum’s collection must be obtained jointly from both the copyright holder (if applicable) and the Computer
History Museum as owner of the material.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Stephen des Jardins, via Al Kossow, 2007.
Biographical/Historical Note
Paul R. DesJardins is notable for his work as a programmer, particularly in aerospace applications, operating systems, time-sharing
systems, databases, and other industry applications and programs. He graduated from St. Louis University in 1948 with a bachelor’s
degree in aeronautical engineering, then studied numerical analysis at UCLA Extension. At the beginning of his career, DesJardins
worked in the aerospace industry doing application programming, aircraft design, flight testing, and trajectory analysis for
Chase Aircraft Company, Redstone Arsenal, the United States Army, and North American Aviation (NAA). DesJardins was with the
army from 1950 to 1953, where he worked in missile trajectory analysis, aircraft flight safety, maintenance, and parts procurement.
After the army, DesJardins was employed at NAA from 1954 to 1965 in the Missile Division, where he worked as the supervisor
of flight test data analysis, and as the director of the Computer Services Division. He was involved in space flight analysis,
celestial mechanics, lunar landing studies, and the NAA’s Hardware Committee. After leaving the NAA, DesJardins worked for
Allen-Babcock Computing (ABC) from 1965 to 1972 as the vice president of systems and programming. While at ABC, he was the
principal designer of RUSH (Remote Use of Shared Hardware), a time-sharing system for the IBM System/360 Model 50 that used
the PL/I language, and contributed to the development of other instructions and applications for a variety of industries.
DesJardins worked as a database application consultant from 1973 to 1986, then worked for Nucleus International (formerly
Marcus) into the 1990s. While at Nucleus, DesJardins co-designed a bit vector coding method that was patented as the Bit String
Compressor with Boolean Operation Processing Capability in 1991. Outside of work, DesJardins was active in the IBM user group
SHARE as a program chairman and board of directors member. He was also a national Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
lecturer on application-specific programming in 1969. DesJardins passed away in 2007.
Scope and Content of the Collection
The Paul R. DesJardins collection contains material collected by DesJardins primarily during his work at North American Aviation
(NAA), Allen-Babcock Computing (ABC), and Nucleus International. The records span 1947 through 2003 with the bulk of the collection
being from 1956 to 1993. One main focus of the material in this collection is the development of the RUSH (Remote Use of Shared
Hardware) time-sharing system, which DesJardins managed as principal designer at ABC. RUSH was built on IBM’s PL/I programming
language, and this collection holds a significant amount of material on PL/I’s development--primarily by joint efforts between
IBM and SHARE--as well. Forms of documentation in this collection for both RUSH and PL/I include technical reports, specifications,
manuals, committee proceedings, and correspondence.
The collection’s records relating to DesJardins’ work at North American Aviation and Nucleus International are fewer in quantity
compared to the Allen Babcock material, but they are useful for gaining a more comprehensive idea of DesJardins’ career. Types
of material from NAA and Nucleus International include internal correspondence, manuals, training and course material, technical
papers, notebooks, and internal committee reports, such as reports from NAA’s Hardware Committee.
Lastly, this collection holds various publications that DesJardins collected as a sort of reference library for different
projects, interests, and work. Included are technical papers, newsletters, conference and seminar proceedings, manuals, reference
guides, specifications, and promotional material. Much of these publications relate to software design and the use of programming
languages, such as Fortran and BASIC. Many of the publications in this part of the collection were published by IBM. The collection’s
earliest publication, a paper titled “Planning and Coding of Problems for an Electronic Computing Instrument,” was published
in 1947 and written by Herman H. Goldstine and John von Neumann.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged into 6 series:
Series 1, Allen-Babcock Computing RUSH records, 1965-1974
Series 2, PL/I development records, 1964-1976
Series 3, North American Aviation records, 1954-1967
Series 4, Nucleus International Corporation records, 1984-2003, bulk 1984-1993
Series 5, Technical reports and newsletters, 1947-1995, bulk 1956-1977
Series 6, Manuals, product descriptions, and specifications, 1957-2001, bulk 1961-1991
Separated Material
Software was separated from the main collection: Lisa Interactive Assembler, DOS, Commodore Word Processing (WordPro), and
Visualize from Norell Data Systems Corporation. A portion of periodicals and books were also separated and cataloged on an
item-level. To view catalog records for separated material, search the CHM catalog at
http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/search/ .
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Allen-Babcock Computing.
International Business Machines Corporation.
North American Aviation.
Nucleus International Corporation.
PL/I (Computer program language)
Programming (Computers)
RUSH (Remote Users of Shared Hardware)
Allen-Babcock Computing RUSH records, Series 1,
1965-1974
Series Scope and Content
This series contains material related to the RUSH time-sharing system that DesJardins collected and created while he was the
vice president of systems design and programming at Allen-Babcock Computing. Material dates from 1965 to 1974. In 1965, Allen-Babcock
contracted with IBM to study several computer technologies, including time-sharing with IBM’s PL/I programming language (for
more information on PL/I, see “Series 2, PL/I development records”). From these studies, Allen-Babcock developed its RUSH
(Remote Use of Shared Hardware) time-sharing system for the IBM System 360 Model 50 using the PL/I language. DesJardins was
the principal designer of RUSH, in addition to many other instructions for the Model 50. This series is almost entirely made
up of material related to the development and implementation of RUSH and its various applications. Material includes descriptions
of RUSH and its applications, DesJardins’ design notebooks and handwritten notes, reports, program listings and libraries,
plans and proposals, newsletters, announcements, manuals, specifications, promotional material, and customer leasing information.
There is also material related to the development of Conversational Programming System (CPS)—a subset and extension of PL/I
that Allen-Babcock contracted with IBM to develop—including reports, specifications, project proposals, handwritten notes
and charts, program listings, drafts of reports with handwritten edits, and the contents of a design notebook. This series
is arranged alphabetically by folder title.
102773388
Construction Cost Control application development
1971
102773382
Conversational Programming System (CPS) development
1965-1966
102773381
International Timesharing purchase
1973
102773391
Project proposals
1971-1972
102773389
RUSH applications
1968-1972
102773390
RUSH compilers
1968-1969
102773383
RUSH customer leasing information
1967-1969
102773384
RUSH development and descriptions
1966-1971
102773385
RUSH manuals and program libraries
1967-1974
102773386
RUSH newsletter and announcements
1967-1971
102773387
RUSH promotional material
circa 1970
PL/I development records, Series 2,
1964-1976
Series Scope and Content
This series consists of material related to the development of the PL/I programming language. Material dates from 1964 to
1976. Development of PL/I was started in 1963 by a committee of IBM and SHARE personnel whose aim was to create one programming
language that could be used across all computer applications, including commercial, scientific, and systems. It was first
implemented as part of the development of the IBM System/360. DesJardins was a program chairman and member of the board of
directors of SHARE, but it is unclear if he was involved with its development of PL/I or if he collected these items as reference
material when he was working on PL/I-related programming design at Allen-Babcock Computing (See “Series 1, Allen-Babcock Computing
records”). This series includes material from the early development of PL/I, including a 1964 report from the SHARE Advanced
Language Development Committee that describes the then-unnamed language; 1969 technical reports from the IBM Vienna Laboratory,
which was tasked with creating a complete specification; IBM specifications from 1965 and 1966; and reports from SHARE and
ACM SIGPLAN PL/I working group meetings. Also included is SHARE correspondence from August to December 1965; most of this
correspondence is related to general SHARE activities, but some is related to PL/I development. This series also contains
material related to the standardization of PL/I, including several editions of reports that were created for ECMA TC10 and
ANSI XJ31 to use as the basis for consideration of PL/I as a standard language. Lastly, this series contains manuals and guides
for PL/I. This series is arranged alphabetically by folder title.
102773376
Correspondence and memoranda
1965-1970
102773379
ECMA and ANSI standardization
1968-1975
102773378
IBM specifications
1965-1966
102773377
Manuals
1967-1976
102773380
Technical papers and reports
1964-1969
North American Aviation records, Series 3,
1954-1967
Series Scope and Content
This series contains material that DesJardins collected and created during his employment with North American Aviation. Types
of material include engineering manuals, course material, technical papers, notes, and committee reports. The earliest records
in this series comprise a notebook compiling promotional material and manuals from various computers and companies. Some of
the material in this notebook relates to DesJardins’ work as a Flight Test Engineer, supervising flight test data analysis.
During his last years at North American Aviation, DesJardins participated in the company’s Hardware Committee, formed to make
computer hardware recommendations. This series contains reports from the Hardware Committee, which reflect efforts in "digging
out facts, plans, and opinions about the various suppliers and their wares by studying published manuals, contacting suppliers'
representatives, visiting twelve computer installations in the aerospace industry and evaluating the significance of what
had been learned." This series is arranged alphabetically by folder title.
102772908
Engineer's computing manuals
1957-1964
102764683
Fortran course material and program descriptions
circa 1963
102772909
Hardware Committee reports
1964-1965
102773910
Notebook with promotional material and manuals for various computers
1954-1956
102773911
Technical papers from conference presentations
1963; 1967
Nucleus International Corporation records, Series 4,
Bulk, 1984-1993
1984-2003
Series Scope and Content
This series is made up of correspondence, manuals, reports, patents, and presentation and course material collected and created
by DesJardins during his work at Nucleus International Corporation. The largest parts of this series comprise manuals and
learning guides, some written for internal use and others for an end-user audience. One early instructional reference guide
from 1985, titled “Marcus Software Notebook,” contains a collection of memoranda and guidelines created at an organization
called Marcus, which later became Nucleus International. Edward L. Glaser, who cofounded Nucleus, appears frequently in this
series. One folder contains a short history of Nucleus written by Glaser, along with correspondence to DesJardins concerning
a memorial tribute for Glaser. This series is arranged chronologically.
102773912
Correspondence, patents, and a history of Nucleus
1984-1986; 1990-1993
102773915
Marcus software notebook
1985
102773913
Database presentation and course material
1989
102773918
Nucleus promotional material and product overview
1989; 1991
102773914
Folded Bit Array (FBA)-based database performance analysis and tree alrogithms
1990; 2003
102773917
Nucleus manuals and learning guides
1990-1992
102773916
Microprogramming report
circa 1990
Technical reports and newsletters, Series 5,
Bulk, 1956-1977
1947-1995
Series Scope and Content
This series contains DesJardins’ collected technical papers, newsletters, conference and seminar proceedings, and technical
reports. Many of these publications relate to software design, operating systems, microprogramming, systems analysis, and
programming languages--especially Fortran. Publishers that appear frequently in this series include IBM and Bell Telephone
Laboratories. Conference, seminar, and workshop proceedings cover presentations facilitated by SHARE, ACM, IBM, and University
of Newcastle upon Tyne. One paper, titled “SHARE - A Eulogy to Cooperative Effort,” documents a presentation at the 1956 Electronic
Business Systems Conference. The earliest paper in this series, “Planning and Coding of Problems for an Electronic Computing
Instrument,” was published in 1947 and written by Herman H. Goldstine and John von Neumann. The newsletters with the highest
numbers of editions in this series are the IBM Technical Newsletter, SIGMICRO newsletter of ACM’s Special Interest Group on
Microprogramming, and the Bulletin of the ACM Special Interest Committee on Symbolic and Algebraic Manipulation (SICSAM).
This series is arranged alphabetically by folder title.
102773919
ALTRAN and Interpreter technical papers and seminar
1967-1969
102773920
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) publications and workshop proceedings
1966-1971
102774025
Circuit cellar INK : the computer applications journal
1990
102773928
High-speed-text-search design contract reports and specifications
1977
102773921
IBM and SHARE conference proceedings
1956; 1977
102773922
IBM technical newsletter
1964-1973
102774027
IEEE transactions on software engineering
1986
102773923
Microprogramming technical papers
1969-1974; 1978
102774026
PC techniques
1995
102774024
SIGMICRO newsletter
1975-1977
102773924
System Development Corporation (SDC) SP series reports
1960-1961
102773925
Technical papers and articles on programming, systems design, and operating systems
1947; 1959; 1961-1968; 1979
102773926
Technical reports, application report, and application notes on systems analysis and
design
1968-1978
102773927
The Programmer's Letter, Data Processing Systems Bulletin, and other newsletters
1956-1959; 1977-1985
Manuals, product descriptions, and specifications, Series 6,
Bulk, 1961-1991
1957-2001
Series Scope and Content
This series consists of manuals, reference guides, product descriptions, specifications, and small amounts of catalogs and
promotional material collected by DesJardins throughout his career. A significant amount of the manuals in this series relate
to programming languages, software design, and commercial software products. Much of the programming manuals focus on Fortran
and BASIC. One software product, an operating system, that is heavily documented in this series is Reality, developed by Microdata
Corporation. DesJardins helped develop Reality while working as a consultant. Manuals and promotional material documenting
hardware also makes up a large portion of this series. The Apple II is a product that is referenced frequently, both the Apple
II equipment and software designed for or adapted to the computer. The company with the most material in this series is IBM,
with manuals, specifications, promotional material, and catalogs for both hardware and software products. The IBM System/360,
OS/360, and IBM 700/7000 series are especially prevalent in these records. Other companies that are well-documented in this
series include Microtec Research, Borland International, Control Data Corporation, and Honeywell Information Systems. This
series is arranged alphabetically by folder title.
102773411
Advanced Micro Devices
1984; 1987
102773408
Apple
1978-1983
102773414
Borland SQL Link, Turbo Debugger 3.0, and ObjectVision
1991-1993
102773410
Burroughs B5000, B6500, and Algol 60
1961; 1969
102773402
CalComp
1968-1969
102773398
Control Data Corporation
1961-1965
102773415
Data General
1974-1975
102773407
Digital Research DR DOS
1991
102773930
Fortran IV, CAL, QED, and BASIC
1966-1968
102773406
General Electric GE-635, GE-625, and time-sharing programs
1964-1968
102773430
Hardware manuals
1961-1982; 1993
102773429
Hardware promotional material and specifications
1975-1981
102773395
Hewlett-Packard
1976-1982
102773403
Honeywell Level 62, Series 16, and Level 6
1970-1977
102773420
IBM 3704, 3705, 3735, and 3767
1971; 1974
102773426
IBM 407 and 1401
1957; 1965
102773418
IBM 700/7000 series
1957-1964
102773424
IBM applications and programs
1967-1993
102773422
IBM data processing applications
1966-1970
102773423
IBM data processing techniques
1961-1966
102773425
IBM general information manuals
1961-1983
102773421
IBM System/360 and OS/360
1966-1972
102773419
IBM System/370 models 145 and 155
1970; 1974
102773412
Intel i960, memory components, 80386, and 8008
circa 1973-1986
102773393
Interdata
1970-1971
102773396
Lear Sieger 7700A
1972-1973
102773932
Marketing management simulation
1960
102773392
Microdata Reality
1972-1984
102773404
Microtec ASM960, XRAY960, and MCC960
1990-1991
102773417
Mitre Interactive Microprogram Development System (IMDS)
1971-09
102773409
Nanos Systems reference cards
1981-1983
102773413
Norell Data Systems
1982; 1984
102773394
Pansophic Easytrieve
1975-1976
102773929
PDP-6 and microcomputers
1964; 1976
102773416
Philco 2000, ALTAC, and Philco 212.
1962
102773933
Product catalogs
1971; 1979; 1993
102773935
Programming and program design manuals
1961-1988
102773401
RCA Spectra 70 and COSMAC
1964-1967; 1979
102773405
SBC CALL/360
1969
102773399
Signetics 2650
1975
102773427
Software manuals
1961-2001
102773934
Software promotional material and program descriptions
1967-1973
102773397
Texas Instruments 960A and integrated circuits
1969; 1972
102773931
VisiTrend, VisiPlot, and VisiCalc
1979-1981
102773428
Word processing systems manuals and promotional material
1980-1983