HP TSB internals

From: Frank McConnell <fmc_at_reanimators.org>
Date: Sat Aug 7 19:33:30 1999

Sellam Ismail <dastar_at_ncal.verio.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 7 Aug 1999, Jay West wrote:
> > This manual is called 2000E IMS (Internals Maintenance Specification). It
> > was written by HP, and I'm pretty certain it was used to train new
> > programmers who were to work on the TSB code itself. It's just way too
>
> You said it was "handwritten", so I concluded it was someone's
> scribblings. Why would HP release a document in someone's handwriting?

OK, Jay said he thought this was a training manual. That could mean
"lab workbook" which didn't get the same amount of polishing as a
user manual. Such things tended to get passed around after one guy
got sent to the course, too.

For example, somewhere around here I have a photocopy of an IMAGE
internals lab workbook. The original was obviously produced with the
assistance of a typewriter and a flowcharting template, and it looks
like someone pencilled some notes on it (maybe while attending the
source). Given that I got that copy around 1982 or so, I'd guess that
it was originally produced in the late 1970s and before the wide
deployment within HP of computerized tools for doing this sort of work
(TDP, HPDRAW, graphics terminals, plotters, laser printers, most of
which didn't really play together on HP3000s 'til about 1980-1983
or so). 2000E manuals and lab workbooks probably would be from the
same or an earlier date.

-Frank McConnell
Received on Sat Aug 07 1999 - 19:33:30 BST