A Short History of Xerox' Darwin Toolset for Programming Real-Time Machine Control Systems

In the 1970s, the Xerox Corporation located its development and manufacturing facilities in and around Rochester, New York [East Coast] and El Segundo, California [West Coast]. These had teams dedicated to providing programming tools for development engineers, who were located primarily on the East Coast, to use in creating control code for new products. This article delves into the history of those tools, primarily into the original, ground-breaking, high-level language called Shadow.