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From: @RUTGERS.ARPA:CharlieLevy.es@Xerox.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.works
Subject: Re: WORKS Digest   V5 #11
Message-ID: <961@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 13-Mar-85 21:20:22 EST
Article-I.D.: topaz.961
Posted: Wed Mar 13 21:20:22 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 14-Mar-85 23:52:41 EST
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Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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From: CharlieLevy.es@XEROX.ARPA

"> For that reason, I'm particularly interested in hearing about how
> people get interactive systems (like airline or bank) running in a
> world with few or no interactive programming tools.

i would be mildy surprised to hear from many of those people [i know
are are some] on this net."

Well, around 1969 I designed a system to serve 40 users interactively
(on teletypes) on a 360/40 with only three partitions. I made my own
mini-time-sharing system within one of the partitions. Programming was
strictly batch--submit punched cards once a day. It was only a matter of
what the product was worth to the company. We had no expectations of
interactive programming (especially from IBM), but nevertheless we
realized that our customers (warehouse fork-lift jocks) HAD! to have a
friendly interactive system that they could run with thumbs an inch
thick. By 1975, the system had upgraded to a larger machine, serving 300
users. The development cost was huge, but apparently the payoff was
also.

Charlie