12 Feb
1998
12 Feb
'98
12:01 p.m.
It now looks like I might at least get the manuals and
so on for the
thing, I don't know about actually running it. What I am wondering
is if it's actually worth it. If I go ahead, it will be my first
experience with a non-microcomputer. Is using this thing something I
could learn from and be interested in, or is it something you would
roll your eyes and groan over? Could someone who has used the thing
tell me what it's like? Is its OS very system-level or does it have
some degree of ease of use?
I have never dealt with a S/34, but now that RCS/RI has one, maybe that
will change.
Anyway, if it is anything like the slightly later S/36 and S/38 machines,
you will be looking at a very complex processor and an VERY hacker
unfriendly OS. Normal minis these thing aren't! They were designed very
conservatively for business applications and are meant to run day-in
day-out doing the same thing, like point-of-sales applications. They are
not powerful or fast, but they never broke or crashed (some S/36 systems
have run for a few years without a reboot or failure!).
You can hack on these things from the ground up, but do not expect much in
the way of programming tools or non-COBOL languages.
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net