{"guid":"01587c9f-5768-5a9d-b470-9036814549c4","title":"RSRE Flex: reviving an innovative, remarkably odd British operating system that almost nobody knows about","subtitle":null,"slug":"emf2026-91-1-rsre-flex-reviving-an-innovative","link":"https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2026/91-rsre-flex-reviving-an-innovative","description":"1980: Royal Signals and Radar Establishment researchers realise Flex, a mould-breaking, comprehensively alternative vision of computing. Features:\n\n- All-hypertext interface (oddly never described thus)\n- Allusions to ancient Egyptian orthography\n- Unforgeable pointers for security\n- Write-once filesystem with nameless files (which you didn't mind)\n- Implementation in the (infamously) complicated language Algol 68\n- First-class functions and typechecking everywhere (I'll explain what that means)\n- Memorable... hardware choices\n\nToday: Flex runs again for the first time in (probably) decades! In this spirited talk (for general audiences *and* OS geeks) I'll live-demo its unique \"feel\" while describing its origins, fate, and unlikely revival (hint: mouldy 8\" floppies). I'll also call for help: maybe YOU know people and information needed to share it publicly. Ahead of its time, maybe ours too, or maybe outside of it: everyone should be able to try Flex. Hopefully this talk brings us one step closer!\n\nLicensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/","original_language":"eng","persons":["T Stepleton"],"view_count":133,"promoted":false,"date":"2026-07-18T17:30:00.000+02:00","release_date":"2026-07-19T00:00:00.000+02:00","updated_at":"2026-07-23T00:30:04.136+02:00","tags":["9101","2026","emf2026","talk","Stage B","emf2026-eng","Day 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