Subj : Re: which was the first linker ?when was the linker concept brought into the programming?
To   : comp.programming
From : Rob Thorpe
Date : Thu Jul 14 2005 08:20 am

jg.campbell.ng@gmail.com wrote:
> ypjofficial@indiatimes.com wrote:
> > Hello All,
> > I read lot about history of programming.
> > Lastly I was searching for "when the concept of linker was brought into
> > the programming" .
> > As in earlier days(unstructured programming days)the compilation unit
> > was a monolithik file but the modulariazation (structured
> > programming)brought the concept of the separate compilation units.
>
> Separate compilation units came long before 'structured programming'
> and before 'modularisation', unless you define 'modularisation' as
> 'using separate compilation units'.
>
> >
> > But nowhere I found when was the concept of linker introduced.
> > Will someone please give me insight into the history of linkers?
> >
>
> See mention of linkers in context of FORTRAN II (1958) at:
>
> http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/languages/fortran/ch1-1.html
>
> That must mean that in earlier FORTRANs one had to include any
> libraries (and other compilation units) as source code?
>
> But I'd reckon there were linkers before 1958.

I think (but I may be wrong) that Alan Turing thought of something like
a linker.

He hypothesised that separate subroutines could be kept in separate
card decks and combined together in a program.  To do the combining
references must be changed, this could be done by a minion with lots of
cards and lots of time or by a computer program.

.