is difficult for modern man to imagine using computers without interactivity ... and stating that "modern" I mean the days of Unix, that is, early 70s. Interestingly, however, that the two decades that preceded this "modernity", computers were used only in an impersonal with no trace of user interactivity, indeed, the concept of "user" as we understand it today- not even exist.
Conceptually, Heritage / 1 is a machine of that period of transition between the "batch" and "time-sharing", and that is why I intend to initially use those big hulks were used in so-called Computer Centres. I must confess that required a great deal of abstraction from me because I'm also contaminated with the interactive experience (not to say, "hyperactive") of the modern PC.
The first uprooting to get into this endeavor, then, the indifference to the interactive use of the computer. A Heritage / 1 operating in a data center is not accessed interactively, but is charged "jobs", you enter "tapes" (V-Tapes) data and the results are printed by the printer.
To this feedback is the definition of user. Heritage / 1 may serve, in effect, a large number of users, just that they never go directly to the machine, very possibly not even get to see it at any time, whereas supply is limited to data collected on forms and receive results printed by Heritage / 1 which will will surely by a messenger of the flesh.
managers directly operate the computer are "operators" professional. For this reason, Heritage / 1 has no more than a video-terminal, or a teletype, perhaps, and your operating system does not implement the concept of the user at all. Valga
clarify that in the terminology of Heritage / 1, this operating system is called "Monitor" since in a later phase of development will write a "time-sharing system" (multi-user) for which I have reserved this term.
very similar to that described above was the modus operandi of any computing machine before the 70s. Needless to say that, given its immense cost, the same trucking jobs bulky payroll and print paychecks for an entire company. This contrasts with the application I will not give in practice Heritage / 1, but the point is to keep the historical perspective relating, in this case, to the days of "batch procesing.
An interesting detail here is on the entry. At that time, data usually entered by punched cards or tapes previously prepared by external equipment to the computer.
For Heritage / 1 will not use punch cards of course! but V-TAPES (diskettes simulating magnetic tape). The problem is where to make these entries ... "On a PC? "It would be tolerable as a simulation but not a practice of all" legal. "
solution (consistent with the observed historical context) comes from the fact that it is a "minicomputer" and not a big mainframe. A mini is designed to operate a small business and its reason for existence lies in its "low cost" (compared with a mainframe). The need to acquire external equipment for the preparation of inputs (such as punch card) is therefore a tremendous limitation in efforts to reduce costs.
Here's a solution that could even be a marketing strategy if Heritage / 1 was a commercial machine in real life: The Monitor offers tools to prepare entries using the computer directly, eliminating the need to purchase external equipment.
Indeed, the Monitor does not operate in multi-user system but, in multi-task, ie you can run multiple processes simultaneously (time multiplexed). Thus, the utility for the preparation of input files can be run simultaneously with the "job" in progress.
Note that this does not imply interactivity. Entrees means exclusively, editing files in V-TAPE, just as we had done using external equipment.
Another interesting aspect of a Heritage / 1 to work in batch mode is in use. Contrary to the specific allocation that would have a time-sharing system (for example, serving the catalog in a public library), a Computer Centre, Heritage / 1 could assimilate all kinds of work. This is because the software is always something outside and eventually loaded from removable media such as magnetic tape (V-TAPE in this case), as well as the input data, which contrasts with the modern perception of "everything in my PC" permanent relapse.
Based on the modus operandi described here, I will have to design applications for Heritage / 1 while it operates in batch mode only. And I confezar that I find extremely interesting, especially for allowing the computer to think very differently from how we think today.
0 comments:
Post a Comment