Bad Classic Operating Systems (was: Micro$oft Biz'droid Lusers)

From: Douglas H. Quebbeman <dquebbeman_at_acm.org>
Date: Mon Apr 22 06:19:45 2002

> Many would put OS/360 in that category.
>
> Some CDC 6600 OSs (I think NOS, maybe others) have permanent and
> temporary files. If your batch job ends and you haven't made your
> temporary files permanent, they will be gone. This unintuitive feature
> persisted after CDC added an interactive terminal interface to the
> underlying batch functionality. You could call that dangerous to data
> (and I wouldn't disagree with you).
>
> I hope I haven't messed up those facts... someone will
> probably correct me if I have. Doug Q.?

NOS 1 followed Kronos by providing the TELEX subsystem for
interactive use. TELEX provided an environment modeled a lot
after the ones found inside BASIC interpreters, namely, you
issue commands like OLD, NEW, RUN, etc...

In fact, that was TELEX's primary purpose in life. It also
provided a "batch" mode where you would simply type control-
cards one at a time. But most everyone use the interactive
modes.

As to the file modes being counterintutive, they're really
not, once you hold you head the right way...

Just as in DEC-10 or other BASICs, if you typed NEW, a LOCAL
file was created. Anythying you typed following a line number
because part of the local file's contents. Of course, if you
type a program in, and didn't type SAVE prior to logout, the
file would be lost because you hadn't made it into a permanent
file (PFILE).

But as I say, this was the same was most BASIC interpreter
environments worked,,,

-dq
Received on Mon Apr 22 2002 - 06:19:45 BST