Share - the first ever open source repository
In 1955, a group of users of scientific applications for IBM 701 computers was formed. This group worked on a voluntary basis, and was named SHARE. Over time, this organization began to develop, and eventually turned into a forum where various technical issues were discussed regarding programming languages, operating systems, databases, etc. But their main resource, undoubtedly, was a source code library. IBM originally released its open source operating systems, and many system programmers modified existing functions or added new ones, and then shared their knowledge with the community. In addition, the SHARE library contained reusable pieces of code — implementations of sorting algorithms, various mathematical functions, and programming tools such as debuggers. Anyone who wrote a program that required the implementation of a certain general algorithm first tried to find it in the SHARE library.
The quality of the code contained in the library was quite high, although no one controlled it. The names of the authors of the code were known, so the programmers did everything so that the code sent to the library did not contain errors. Programmers who shared really high-quality programs or functions with the community had a chance to become famous, but not get rich - in those years the cost of software was not expressed in money, since the programs were delivered free of charge with hardware.
SHARE still exists as a nonprofit organization based in Chicago, newsletter publisher, and educational seminar. In addition, the SHARE library archive is available on the Internet .
The quality of the code contained in the library was quite high, although no one controlled it. The names of the authors of the code were known, so the programmers did everything so that the code sent to the library did not contain errors. Programmers who shared really high-quality programs or functions with the community had a chance to become famous, but not get rich - in those years the cost of software was not expressed in money, since the programs were delivered free of charge with hardware.
SHARE still exists as a nonprofit organization based in Chicago, newsletter publisher, and educational seminar. In addition, the SHARE library archive is available on the Internet .