On 2015-08-09 19:54, ANDY HOLT wrote:
Good OS-es allowed an operator to mount tapes for his next few jobs,
without paying attention to paper labels and have the OS automatically
locate and assign tapes to the proper job.
Even the old Operators Exec (and thus George 1 and 2) could do that
on the ICL 1900 - I think it was referred-to as "AVR" (Automatic Volume
Recognition)
I took it so much for granted that I did not even think of mentioning
it in the operational requirement for the replacement system.
Quite a shock to discover its absence in GCOS on the Level 66.
(The reason for its absence on big multi-tasking machines was probably to do
with
the scheduling on such being done by the OS, not the operators. Typically there
was an extra console by the tape decks which told the operators which tapes to
load
for the next couple of jobs and didn't even schedule the job until the
appropriate
device was ready.)
You should look at the operator interface in TOPS-20... It's a marvel of
beauty in this area.
Johnny
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: b...@softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
