abstract

The source code of landmark legacy software is particularly important: it sheds
insights in the history of the evolution of a technology that has changed the
world, and tells a story of the humans that dedicated their lives to it.

Rescuing it is urgent, collecting and curating it is a complex task that
requires significant human intervention.

This document presents the first version of SWHAP, the Software Heritage
Acquisition Process: a protocol for the collection and preservation of software
of historical and scientific relevance. SWHAP results from a fruitful
collaboration of the University of Pisa with Software Heritage in this area of
research, under the auspices of UNESCO, and has been validated on a selection of
software source code produced in the Pisa area over the past 50 years.