On 02/07/2013 10:35 PM, Shmuel Metz (Seymour J.) wrote:
In <[email protected]>, on 02/07/2013
at 05:27 PM, "Joel C. Ewing" <[email protected]> said:
The Wood history of HASP/JES2 left hanging the question about the
origin of the term "spooling".
Do you consider SPOOL System, 7070-IO-076 to be of sufficient
antiquity?
That was the earliest reference (circa 1958) I could locate as well. It
just seemed that the name from which the "acronym" was derived sounded
contrived (omitting the spurious "On-Line" would have been equally
descriptive). But then it is not that unusual to consider multiple name
variants for a new product; and if you choose a name which forces a more
appealing acronym, that clouds the distinction between acronyms and
backronyms.
Joel C Ewing
'"SPOOL" has become a common verb, but originally was itself an
acronym signifying Simultaneous Peripheral Operations On Line. This
acronym originated with the 7070 computer, which had a system of
interrupts that let one program a peripheral activity (e.g.,
card-to-tape, tape-to-print, tape-to-card) while a main program was
running.' (Dictionary of IBM Jargon, Tenth Edition)
Since early "spooling" systems staged unit records to a spool of
magnetic tape,
I've only seen reels of tape called spools in an audio or TV context;
prior to cartridges and MSS the terms I heard were "reel" and "tape
volume".
--
Joel C. Ewing, Bentonville, AR [email protected]
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