🚀 go-pugleaf

jav...@earthlink.net (John Varela) writes:

>On Sun, 29 Jul 2001 13:50:07, "Daniel House" <d.h...@computer.org> wrote:

>> Was Test and Set invented for this purpose?

>I believe yes.

>> It surprised me--I thought TS had to be older than that.

>I don't think so.

John, I think I'll disagree with you here; my recollection (not parity-
checked!) is that TS was part of the original design.  It certainly
was in the original PoO that I worked with in the mid-'60s, although
I do recall at the time being unable to find anyone who could produce
a credible suggestion for any siuation in which it could be used.

If TS was added to support the ATC requirements, why was it the only
one of those specialized opcodes to make it into the standard PoO?
(Perhaps because it alone did not rely on any particular data
structure that was unique to the FAA software?)

Looking back at what I just wrote, I think I should add that John worked
on the machines, but the only time I ever got up close and personal
to a 9020 system was an impromptu tour I was given of the system
at ZTL one day when I flew down to Atlanta with an Air Force officer
investigating a fatal military airplane crash.  After the interviews
with the controllers were finished I had a chance to look around the computer
room while directly filing an IFR flight plan (which was especially
convenient since I totally bypassed the IFR plan reservation system
that was still in place after the FAA controller's strike).

Joe Morris