🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sat, 24 Mar 2018 18:46:52 -0400, Dan Espen <dan1...@gmail.com>
wrote:

>J. Clarke <jclarke...@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> On Sat, 24 Mar 2018 12:09:19 -0700 (PDT), hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
>>
>>>On Monday, March 19, 2018 at 7:09:04 PM UTC-4, Dan Espen wrote:
>>>
>>>> Wang VS was a great system.
>>>> The OS was nothing like anything from IBM.
>>>> I was working on it for a while before I stumbled onto one of the
>>>> Wang's IBM-isms.  Even then, a little of IBM, a lot of great Wang stuff.
>>>> 
>>>> So, I'm editing a COBOL program and the editor allows me to run
>>>> a test.  I think I've submitted a job and that's it, but a message
>>>> comes back to my screen telling me I have a S0C7 (IBM speak for invalid
>>>> data).  Unlike anything from IBM,
>>>> it shows me the send and receive fields and their contents.
>>>> Also, it lets me type new data into either or both fields.  Or it offers
>>>> to take me to the offending line in the COBOL program.
>>>> 
>>>> Of course all you get from IBM, is watch the job until it ends, then
>>>> read a huge dump.
>>>> Using Wang VS made it so clear how bad IBM software was.
>>>
>>>The latest IBM mainframe COBOL has improved somewhat on debugging
>>>aids in case of an abend.
>>>
>>>
>>>> The Wang hardware was a bit different too.
>>>> Their systems spanned a huge range of power.
>>>> The VS 5 was a $12,000 system.  Way lower priced
>>>> than anything in the IBM mainframe lineup.
>>>> When I connected from home using a Wang terminal the OS
>>>> loaded a micro-program into my terminal.  I think it did that
>>>> with all it's peripherals.  Seemed like a good idea to me.
>>>> The host really did control it's devices.
>>>
>>>What happened to the Wang Company?
>>
>> The short version is An Wang put his kid in charge, the kid screwed
>> up, then An Wang died.
>
>Those Wang green screen terminals acted as word processors too.
>(Part of the microcode the host downloaded.)
>I remember hearing that Wang was going to work out how to
>integrate their stuff with PCs.  Never happened.

I understand that they kind of sort of did, but it took so long that
an insurance company got fed up and had a clone written that pretty
much killed Wang's word processing market.  This is something I did
not know until this weekend--I need to tell my boss on Monday because
(a) we've been fighting an "innovation" battle internally and (b) that
insurance company was us, and it's good to have this kind of
ammunition.