Hats Off to you, Joey, for some serious gap-filling. What's "Chat" for, if it isn't for war stories?
This post will be one of my major references for my multi-volume work-in-progress: "The Paucity Of Evidence For Intelligent Design In The Evolution Of Computers." On Mon, Jun 18, 2018 at 4:43 AM, Joey K Tuttle <[email protected]> wrote: > I have followed this galloping thread and finally nostalgia is causing me > to add to the detritus. > > For the last 50+ entries in the thread, I've been wondering - > > Did this [d]evolving discussion answer the original questions, asked a > month ago, by "Jane the novice of J" <[email protected]> ? > > Or, did it cause Jane to run away from the forum laughing or ??? > > Jane (if you are still around), what say you? > > Clearly Jane's questions piqued a lot of comments. > > The APL character set has been an interest of mine for quite a long time. > I, like many others, learned APL without having access to the APL > characters (using an IBM1050 connected by phone, at 134.5 baud, to the > "original" APL machine at IBM Yorktown Heights Research Labs - I was > working for IBM in Boulder CO c. 1969) > > About the Selectric Type element - it came in two variations, > Correspondence (IBM P/N 1167987) and BCD (P/N 1167988). The order of > characters was different - the BCD variation was the only one supported on > the 1050. The much classier 2741 was aimed at office workers rather than > computer programmer/operators and introduced the Correspondence code set. > If you were ordering a 2741 and specified the type element to be one of the > APL ones, that determined the code set used to communicate with the > mainframe. When using a 2741, APL (thanks to RDMoore) noted the first typed > character in a login e.g. the ) in )2001:woohoo and selected the > appropriate character table to deal with BCD versus Correspondence coding. > If the first line was just the character ) then a line of overstrikes > was made to obscure the login credentials. Lots of people rolled the paper > up so they could reveal their login if they needed to check for typing > errors. > > An amusing side effect was that TSO (Time Sharing Option of the IBM 360 > OS, where hundreds of key pounding programers were engaged in the > development of FS mentioned in an earlier message) would only support BCD > coded communications. So, if someone ordered a 2741 with APL element 987, > then TSO users were excluded from using that device ... Well, actually, the > programmers usually called for a service guy to convert the 2741 to BCD > which required mechanical replacement of the bars connecting the keyboard > to the internal mechanisms (an hour or 2 of tedious work) to allow the > terminal to work with TSO... > > Here is a picture of an APL (BCD) Selectric type element - > http://bpi.1e6.com/APL988.jpg > > The discussion of printing APL at high speed also evoked lots of memories. > My first job at IBM was testing the 1403N1 printer and the UCS feature > (this was before APL existed...) A side note is that the UCS feature, which > allowed the novel ability to print upper and lower case letters, was > developed in part because a famous televangelist wanted to buy one to send > large numbers of personalized letters to his flock. The individually > replaceable type elements on the 1403 train (versus the chain, actually a > belt with type elements affixed to it, of earlier models) made APL support > possible. Here is a picture of some 1403 type slugs (as they were called) > with APL characters on them - http://bpi.1e6.com/1403_UCS_APL.jpg > > You can see that the slugs travelled on a monorail and were gear driven > (pushed) around an oblong track. There were 132 hammers (in a 13.2 inch > span), on the other side of the 14 inch wide inked ribbon and fanfold > paper. Those hammers being triggered, at the appropriate instant, to slam > the paper against the ribbon and type slug. It was a very noisy operation, > the model N1 had much larger covers designed to reduce the noise. Some > clever people learned to play tunes on the 1403 by carefully arranging the > text being printed... You can read more about various models of the 1403 > at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_1403 > > Researching this stuff turned up some interesting pages that dive into > things about APL and its characters and keyboards - > > http://www.rexswain.com/aplinfo.html > > Here is some information about the 2741 in general (including mention of > APL) - > > https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72ved > xjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/IBM_2741.html > > Ahh, the "good old days" .. > > > > > On 2018Jun 17, at 11:07, Don Guinn <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > When STSC came out with an APL for the PC I got quite good at reading the > > extended ASCII characters as their APL equivalent. It was really great > when > > I finally broke down and bought the APL character generator chip from > STSC. > > > > On Sun, Jun 17, 2018 at 10:26 AM Devon McCormick <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > >> The APL print train we had on our IBM line-printers was adapted from a > >> "library" chain because it had Greek letters on it. If you ever looked > at > >> the chain after it had been in use for a while, you would see one shiny, > >> unused character on it: the lower-case lambda which was a remnant of the > >> original chain but was not used in APL. > >> > >> On Sun, Jun 17, 2018 at 10:15 AM, Robert Bernecky < > >> [email protected]> > >> wrote: > >> > >>> A few points: > >>> > >>> - The BGT (Blasted Goldball Terminals) were indeed noisy, but > >>> they did make a better carbon copy than the 327X screens. > >>> > >>> - I wrote what was the first "teletype support" for SHARP APL, > >>> I think in 1972 or 1973, for our University of Toronto in-house site. > >>> Character mapping, was a nightmare, and none of us (Roger Moore > >>> and I) were never happy with any of the schemes we used for them. > >>> > >>> - The APL-ASCII terminals came along later, in two flavors - > "bit-paired" > >>> and "typewriter-paired", due to the terminal manufacturers' inability > >>> to agree on anything. These were either dot-matrix terminals > >>> or "print wheel"-based ones. I think the latter were made possible by > >>> the advent of small, inexpensive stepping motors. > >>> > >>> - We did have APL print trains on the 1403N1 printers with UCS. > >>> The earlier 1403 printers, with print chains, did not have APL, > >>> so this was A Great Advance. The print chains were not amenable > >>> to local mods, but the trains had print slugs that you could replace, > >>> to make a custom character set. > >>> > >>> Bob > >>> > >>> > >>> On 2018-06-17 04:18 AM, Ian Clark wrote: > >>> > >>>> At the IBM Scientific Centre in Peterlee we had 3270-series terminals > >> for > >>>> APL characters from 1975, I'm pretty sure. But I learned my APL around > >>>> 1973 > >>>> on an EBCDIC-only 3277. No, I didn't use that absurd curly bracketed > >>>> notation – the first mainframe APL I used was APLSV, which had > separate > >>>> 256-byte input- and output-tables as editable text files. If you had a > >>>> spare afternoon you could customise them however you liked, and I > >>>> cobbled-up a usable APL alphabet (small-e for epsilon, small-i for > iota, > >>>> etc) omitting the rarer characters like domino and covering them if > >>>> needed, > >>>> or copy/pasting the character from quadAV. > >>>> > >>>> When at last I was able to type real APL characters I didn't take to > >> them > >>>> at all – I couldn't read the code. > >>>> > >>>> But nobody ever read the code. APL was proud of being a Write-Only > >>>> language. But I felt the shame. There I was, able to read assembly > code > >> as > >>>> fluently as a newspaper, but I couldn't read an APL program I had just > >>>> written. > >>>> > >>>> Fortunately I never had to use one of those blasted golfball terminals > >>>> which sounded like a tommy gun. They were in heavy use by our project > >>>> partners ADSS Mohansic for prototyping software (in APL) intended for > >> the > >>>> hush-hush FS (Future-Series) mainframe. When you walked into their > lab, > >>>> with a hundred APL programmers all beavering away, the noise was > >>>> deafening. > >>>> > >>>> In those days computers were IPL-ed daily (Initial Program Load-ed) – > >> and > >>>> the FS prototype took longer and longer to IPL as emulation piled on > >>>> emulation (I think they were using APL to emulate the instruction > set!) > >>>> Eventually it exceeded 24 hours, at which point the project was > >> cancelled, > >>>> to great staff and customer consternation. > >>>> > >>>> So the story goes. > >>>> > >>>> Shortly afterward, on one of my regular transatlantic jaunts, I > referred > >>>> airily in conversation to an "Iverson Ball". My interlocutor, a > >> born-again > >>>> evangelical, curtly informed me it was called the Iverson Printing > >>>> Element. > >>>> > >>>> Ian > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> On Sat, Jun 16, 2018 at 10:26 PM, Don Guinn <[email protected]> > wrote: > >>>> > >>>> Other problems. Never heard of a print train with APL characters for > >> high > >>>>> speed printers. Had to have a special type ball for Selectric > >>>>> typewriters. > >>>>> It wasn't until the late 1970's that teletype matrix terminals > started > >>>>> supporting APL characters. Likewise for 3270 monitors. > >>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------ > ---------- > >>>>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/ > forums.htm > >>>>> > >>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------ > ---------- > >>>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/ > forums.htm > >>>> > >>> > >>> -- > >>> Robert Bernecky > >>> Snake Island Research Inc > >>> 18 Fifth Street > >>> Ward's Island > >>> Toronto, Ontario M5J 2B9 > >>> > >>> [email protected] > >>> tel: +1 416 203 0854 > >>> text/cell: +1 416 996 4286 > >>> > >>> > >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > >>> > >> > >> > >> > >> -- > >> > >> Devon McCormick, CFA > >> > >> Quantitative Consultant > >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
