Date: Sat, 11 Jun 1994 00:04:07 -0400 (EDT)
From: Bill_von_Hagen@transarc.com
To: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: New Light on the Legend of Mel?
The legend of Mel, meister programmer, is an occasional topic in this
group and others.  In the legend, Mel worked for Royal McBee, an early
computer company.  In the recent Boston Computer Museum Email Auction,
I bought a set of manuals and a Read Flip Flop (5" square PCB, 4
tubes, etc.) for an Royal McBee LGP-30.  The docs are dated 1959, and
have some *great* illustrations of how drums work (all 4096 words of
storage, on this particular system), what users will look like, etc...

One of our local systems wizards recently posted the legend on one of
our internal bboards to warm our hearts, which got me interested in
reading the LGP-30 manuals I'd acquired (I'm funny that way.)  In the
manual for the LGP-30 ACT 1 (Algebraic Compiler and Translator)
Compiler, the preface contains the following attribution from Clay S.
Boswell, Jr. (apparently ACT 1's designer):

>> I wish to acknowledge my appreciation to the many people who
>> offered suggestions and criticisms of the ACT 1 System.  In
>> particular... Mel Kaye of Royal McBee who did the bulk of the
>> programming.

Perhaps Mel Kaye is the one true Mel - how many master programmers
named Mel could there have been at Royal McBee?  Interesting data to
ponder, regardless. I thought I should post this here, since the
legend comes up every so often and the docs for these systems can't be
all that common.

       Bill von Hagen
       wvh@transarc.com