In 1971, Mitre (DC-area non-profit think tank for government -- had a 2250 connected to OS/360, which included native device support for it. When we installed VM circa 1972, I got to make it work under CMS (component of VM). VERY fortunately someone at University of Grenoble (France) had written a lot of truly arcane and magnificent assembler code getting it to run under CMS part of CP/67 (VM's predecessor). "Fortunately" because I doubt I'd have been able to write that software.
Even porting it from old CMS to new CMS was challenging -- and not helped by comments being in French (even having taken two years of French in high school -- with at least one semester using a chemistry textbook for class). Overall, it took relatively few tweaks to run. The last breakthrough was realizing that I had Maclibs (CMS macro libraries) in the wrong order so wrong macro versions were used for assembly. The primary application under VM was impressive -- displaying a simulated airspace where a number of fictional aircraft were flying. Plus one "real" airplane, a Linc Trainer (small aircraft flight simulator) in the data center with a real human pilot. I forget how the Linc Trainer connected to VM and what VM thought it was -- it surely wasn't a standard configurable peripheral. This was used for projects developing anti-collision algorithms and hardware for FAA. Charles Mills <charl...@mcn.org> observed: The 2250 was a BEAST! Graphics. Light pen. A separate function key keypad. You could put typewritten labels in the function keys, and light up the allowed keys under program control. Had an 1130 computer under the hood as its controller. (No wonder it cost $$$.) The very first 360 application I ever saw was a 2250-driving system written in PL/I for one of the big pharmas -- trying to remember who. It was written by John Gilmore and Associates. (Yes, our very own IBMMAIN John Gilmore.) The idea was you could simulate the flow of a drug through the body, complete with a graphical representation. I don't believe it ever exactly worked. This would have been in 1969. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
