Many years ago, FAA Air Traffic Control Centers were using card-system
1130's to print out flight-strips, which contained info about known
flights and were handed off between controllers as the flights moved
from one screen/controller to the next. The Anchorage ATC and Honolulu
(if I remember correctly) were part of a test program which provided
them with disk storage and 2741 printers (as an alternative to the
1130 console). The management of the Anchorage ATC had a plan in mind
to make fuller use of the 1130's. They gave their controllers
programming aptitude tests and selected some to do programming,
believing that the application knowledge of the controllers (along
with some training) made a better choice than the traditional
controller-to-analyst-to-programmer communication pipeline. I had to
write a 2741 device driver for the 1130 (on an SE contract), but I got
to do some coffee-break socializing with the programmers, and help
with a few questions. I was surprised by the ingenuity and work-ethic
of the new programmers, and by the functionality of their products.
I'm sure the products were not paradigms of efficiency, but the speed
of the 1130 (for its day) and the functionality of their work held up,
at least while I was still in the area.
Dale Miller
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