John, This puts me in mind of simpler times, let's say the early '70s. In those days, you could tell which manufacturer was responsible for the utility bill printing mainframe. These were the days of "Snowwhite and the Seven Dwarfs" but, in the UK, utility "companies" were divided between IBM and ICL. The look of the printed lines was the key. If it was nice and straight you knew the printed stationary had been through an IBM 1403-N1 and the mainframe system was as IBM 360. If it was - as I used to remark to myself - a "life on the ocean waves", you knew it was the trademark of an ICL 1900 (I think) system.
These were indeed simpler times. Another, related recollection comes to mind. There was a little sister in the ICL stable called English Electric with their System/4, a 360 copy via RCA and their Spectre. I put together a package to assist moving from the System/4 to MVS. The package was checked out with a suite of programs from the local electricity utility company who ran their billing on a System/4. After successful running of all 7 linked programs in the suite with much tape spinning out popped the printout - on a 1403-N1 naturally - and there, for all the world to see, were the live bills from the last quarter complete with customer names and addresses. Chris Mason ----- Original Message ----- From: "John S. Giltner, Jr." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, 22 January, 2006 3:25 AM Subject: Re: Automation screens? <snip> > You really can't tell what backend system are being used for what. <end snip> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
