System/34 once again

From: William Donzelli <william_at_ans.net>
Date: Thu Feb 12 17:01:43 1998

> It now looks like I might at least get the manuals and so on for the
> thing, I don't know about actually running it. What I am wondering
> is if it's actually worth it. If I go ahead, it will be my first
> experience with a non-microcomputer. Is using this thing something I
> could learn from and be interested in, or is it something you would
> roll your eyes and groan over? Could someone who has used the thing
> tell me what it's like? Is its OS very system-level or does it have
> some degree of ease of use?

I have never dealt with a S/34, but now that RCS/RI has one, maybe that
will change.

Anyway, if it is anything like the slightly later S/36 and S/38 machines,
you will be looking at a very complex processor and an VERY hacker
unfriendly OS. Normal minis these thing aren't! They were designed very
conservatively for business applications and are meant to run day-in
day-out doing the same thing, like point-of-sales applications. They are
not powerful or fast, but they never broke or crashed (some S/36 systems
have run for a few years without a reboot or failure!).

You can hack on these things from the ground up, but do not expect much in
the way of programming tools or non-COBOL languages.

William Donzelli
william_at_ans.net
Received on Thu Feb 12 1998 - 17:01:43 GMT