Oooh, a whole operating system I've never even heard of! Pray
tell, what new
hates await us?
OS/1100, AKA Exec, OS/2200, Exec/8, is the OS on the Univac/Sperry/
Unisys 1100 mainframe. The file system consists of fixed-sized files
containing variable-sized elements of four different types. Files may
have a read password or a write password, and elements may have
multiple versions. A file name may have a reel number or access
locator, an f-cycle (version), and an account qualifier. The full
syntax, from my memory, is (reel)qualifier*filename(f-cycle)/rkey/
wkey.element/version. But I think I've left some details out.
It's religiously line oriented. Commands start with "@", immediate
commands start with "@@". Immediate commands really are acted upon
immediately: entering the line "@@Q" is equivalent to an interrupt.
There's no garbage collections, you have to periodically compact a
file with "@COPY,P", and frequently need to enter a utility
"FURPUR" (which stands for, IIRC, file utility routine program
utility routine).
Between the funky file system, the card-punch style command line, the
36-bit word size, and the 1s-complement arithmetic, you'll understand
why their largest remaining customer is rumored to be the IRS.
