Paul McJones, editor - paul@mcjones.org - http://www.mcjones.org/dustydecks/
Software Preservation Group
Computer History Museum

Introduction

The goal of this project is to preserve and present primary and secondary source materials (including specifications, source code, manuals, and papers discussing design and implementation) from Mesa, the system programming language designed at Xerox PARC in the 1970s and used to implement the Xerox Star office automation system and its follow-ons. The editor greatly appreciates comments, suggestions, and donations of additional materials.

Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Source code
• Documentation
• Papers and reports
• Other Mesa resources

Acknowledgments

Thanks to: Al Kossow.

To do:

• Principles of Operation: Online at bitsavers.org
• Mention its successor, Cedar Mesa.

Source code

The Mesa system was compatible with the file system of the original Alto operating system (which was written in BPCL). It was a single address space, single user system.

Mesa 3.0

• System. October 1977 and March 1978. PDF at bitsavers.org

Mesa 4.0

• Microcode, system, and program development tools (binder, bootstrap, compiler, debugger, lister, utilities). PDF at bitsavers.org

Mesa 5.0

Mesa 6.0

• Mesa Microcode. Version 41, July 1981. PDF at bitsavers.org

Mesa programs

• 5700 laser printer, Pilot operating system, Star office automation system, ...

Documentation

Mesa 1.0

• Charles M. Geschke, Charles Irby, Richard K. Johnsson, Edwin H. Satterthwaite and John D. Wick. Preliminary Mesa System Documentation. December 1, 1976. PDF at bitsavers.org

"This collection of documentation describes the initial release of the Mesa programming system, Mesa library packages, and operational procedures for the Alto. It is intended as a preliminary effort, for use by experienced systems programmers operating in the Parc and SDD/Palo Alto environment. Substantial evolution of both the system and this documentation should be anticipated.

The Mesa, language, compiler and programming system are the product of a long-standing research project at Parc, in which Chuck Geschke, Butler Lampson, Jim Mitchell, and Ed Satterthwaite have been the main participants. The current compiler was written by Geschke and Satterthwaite. They also wrote the debugger and support software needed to run Mesa programs on the Alto, in collaboration with Jim Mitchell and with Charles Irby, Richard Johnsson and John Wick of SOD/Palo Alto. Compiler testing has been done by Jim Frandeen of SDD/Palo Alto."

Mesa 4.0

• James G. Mitchell, William Maybury, and Richard Sweet. Mesa Language Manual. Version 4.0, May 1978. PDF at bitsavers.org
• System, debugger, and user documentation. Online at bitsavers.org

Mesa 5.0

• James G. Mitchell, William Maybury, and Richard Sweet. Mesa Language Manual. Version 5.0, CSL 79-3, Palo Alto Research Center and Systems Development Department, Xerox Corporation, April 1979. PDF at bitsavers.org
• System, debugger, and user documentation. Online at bitsavers.org

Mesa 6.0

• Anonymous. Mesa 6.0 Primary Bytecodes. PDF at bitsavers.org

Xerox Development Environment

• Anonymous. Xerox Development Environment : Mesa Course. Document Services Business Unit, Xerox Corporation, September 1988. PDF at bitsavers.org

Papers and reports

• Jim Mitchell. What Mesa needs in an Alto Virtual Memory Scheme. Inter-Office Memorandum, Computer Science Laboratory, Palo Alto Research Center, Xerox Corporation, June 12, 1974. PDF at bitsavers.org
• B. W. Lampson, J. G. Mitchell, and E. H. Satterthwaite. On the transfer of control between contexts. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 19, Springer, 1974, pages 181-203. PDF at microsoft.com
• P. Heinrich and W. Shultz. Selection of a System Programming Language for OIS. Inter-Office Memorandum, ITG, Xerox Corporation, December 17, 1974. PDF at bitsavers.org
• C. M. Geschke and J. G. Mitchell. On the problem of uniform references to data structures. In Proceedings of the international conference on Reliable software. ACM, New York pages 31-42. ACM Digital Library
• Charles M. Geschke, James H. Morris, Jr., and Edwin H. Satterthwaite. Early experience with Mesa. Commun. ACM Volume 20, Number 8 (August 1977), pages 540-553. ACM Digital Library
• Hugh C. Lauer and Edwin H. Satterthwaite. The Impact of Mesa on System Design. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Software Engineering, Munich, Germany, September 1979. IEEE Computer Society, 1979. PDF at bitsavers.org
• Butler W. Lampson and David D. Redell. Experience with processes and monitors in Mesa. Comm.ACM Volume 23, Number 2 (Feb. 1980), pages 106-117. PDF at microsoft.com ACM Digital Library
• James G. Mitchell. Mesa from the perspective of a designer turned user. In Proceedings of the international conference on APL (APL '81), William L. Anderson and David G. Smith (Eds.). ACM, New York. PDF at bitsavers.org ACM Digital Library

Other Mesa resources

• Diarmuid Pigott. Mesa. HOPL: an interactive Roster of Programming Languages. Online at hopl.murdoch.edu.au
• Documentation for the computers Mesa ran on.
  • Alto hardware and software documents. Online at bitsavers.org
  • Dandelion. Online at bitsavers.org
  • Dicentra. Online at bitsavers.org
  • Dolphin. Online at bitsavers.org
  • Dorado. Online at bitsavers.org
• Memos from SDD, the Xerox product group that developed and maintained Mesa. Online at bitsavers.org