Thanks Dave, the 3270 terminal screen makes sense. Or to make use of the
system and resources, you'd remote to it using a 3270.
So it may have been at a time no one thought to snap a photograph of any of
those 3270s in use (not just a "room full of 3270's" kind of photo - but of
the actual screen, showing whatever it was they were doing; managing
tape/disk resources, files, users, or running APL or something. That's
more what I was looking for, when you "used VM/370 {or remoted into it},
this is what it looked like."
There had to be some kind of installer? Or maybe I'm viewing it wrong -
they (a business) didn't just buy a S/370 then decide what OS to install.
But rather it was a packaged prepared by IBM, so maybe it was pre-installed
with VM/370 and configured to whatever the arrangement/contract was? Or a
way to say "when someone used a S/370 {or CMS}, this is what the console
content looked like" (printed, or by that time yea probably more likely a
CRT).
“The Origin of the VM/370 Time-Sharing System” – R.J. Creasy gives a little
bit of a description on those components CP, CMS, and RSCS. But no
photo/image yet of a terminal with content to identify "yeah, see they are
using a S/370 there" (maybe its listing disk packs, tapes, memory
resources, etc?) I got something like this for the earlier CTSS and
TOPS-10.
-Steve
On Fri, Feb 6, 2026 at 6:32 AM David Wade via cctalk <[email protected]>
wrote:
>
>
> On 06/02/2026 08:30, Steve Lewis via cctalk wrote:
> > Hey all,
> >
> > I was trying to track down some kind of image/photo of "what IBM VM/370
> > looks like" (the operating system)
> Well its software, so its hard to say what it looks like!
>
> Seriously it changed a lot over the years, and so you need to say
> "when", oh I see from below 1970s.....
> > I tried looking also in the IBM manuals - I'm just not finding much.
> Some
> > kind of image of what maybe a remote login looked like, a task process
> > list, or maybe basic file/folder management commands, or how an editor or
> > programming worked on that system.
>
> There is no "Task/process" list. VM , more usually called CP creates a
> virtual machine for each user.
> The user then IPLs CMS into that virtual machine, hence VM/370 -. every
> one gets a virtual 370 or VM/CMS most people run CMS in their virtual
> machine.
> so you can do a query names which shows you who is logged on...
>
> query names
> OPERATOR - 009, WAKEUP - DSC, CMSBATCH - DSC, CPWATCH - DSC
> MAINT - 0C1, CMSUSER - 0C0
> Ready; T=0.01/0.01 12:27:04
>
> and use the indicate command to see how the machine is performing...
>
> indicate load
> CPU-002% APU-000% Q1-00 Q2-00 STORAGE-012% RATIO-01.0
> Ready; T=0.01/0.01 12:29:07
>
> indicate user
> PAGES: RES-0119 WS-0059 READS=000019 WRITES=000000 DISK-0000 DRUM-0000
> VTIME=000:01 TTIME=000:02 SIO=001039 RDR-000000 PRT-000000 PCH-000000
> Ready; T=0.01/0.01 12:30:07
> > There is a bit of media with a VM/370 emulator, but I wasn't sure how
> > accurately representative it was of a kind of "look and feel" of that OS.
> probably representative, but its hard to say what is realistic. Many
> sites had one extensions in the form of SEPP or BSEPP which were
> licenced from IBM and appear to be lost.
> Those that didn't have those wrote their own extensions, many of which
> have been preserved.
> > What I'd need is maybe photographs of teletype printouts? This was still
> > early 1970s. Which is understandable not much of that was probably kept
> > around.
> >
> no one used a teletype on VM/370, and in the 1970s it was VM/370. Almost
> always a 3270 screen or a 2741 but not many 2741.
> I think most common reason for a 2741 was that you were running APL.
> /I know at this point some one will pop-in and say they did, but it was
> really rare./
> > Thanks, just digging around - like wasn't sure if VM/370 was still
> > six-character filename limited like earlier 60s era OS's, or whatever
> > characteristics it had in operating it.
> It is even weirder. There are no folders or directories, just
> 8-character file name, 8-character file type, and file mode, so a disk
> letter and sort of permissions number. e.g.
>
> list ab* * a
> ABSLDR ASSEMBLE A1
> ABSLDR LISTING A1
> ABSLDR TEXT A1
> ABSTRACT ABS3 A1
> ABSTRACT ABS5 A1
> ABSTRACT P3 A1
> ABSTRACT R5 A1
> ABSTRACT R6 A1
> ABSTRACT R6A A1
> ABSTRACT WATER2 A1
> Ready; T=0.01/0.01 12:17:27
>
> and just to confuse things
> files of type "TEXT" or the equivalent of "OBJECT" files in most other
> systems.
> >
> > -Steve
> Dave
>
