Btw... The inhouse system wasn't WYSIWYG, it used a standard font with markup to
specify attributes. The back end system translated that to the proper fonts. The fonts
were custom designed.
Sent from my iPhone
On Mar 13, 2019, at 11:49, Paul Koning <paulkoning
at comcast.net> wrote:
Early 1979. I worked on TMS-11 from summer 1978 to summer 1980, as
"firefighter" -- traveling on-site support and software repair. I was scheduled
for CMS-11 training early 1979, but instead the Valley News developed a serious bug so I
was sent there to learn on the spot. :-)
Supposedly the Valley News was one of the biggest classified systems in the country, 50+
pages of ads on the peak day. DEC also had a system in Melbourne, Australia (I think) at
News Corp, which was somewhat bigger still. Or perhaps that was a bid that didn't
turn into a sale? Not sure. Still, those systems didn't have 300 terminals, the
likely limit was 100 or so I think. So if you had 330 I can see why that would be custom.
TMS-11 used 11/70 systems running IAS (trimmed down to look like RSX-11/D, the
timesharing part yanked out), with either VT61/t and/or VT71 terminals. The latter have
an LSI-11 inside to do full file local editing.
There was Typeset-10, I'm not sure how many customers that had but they were big.
Chicago Tribune, I think?
It was interesting to do field work for customers who need their system to be very
reliable because they have to produce "product" every single day. Pretty
amazing to get a job like that fresh out of college.
paul
On Mar 13, 2019, at 2:37 PM, Wayne S
<Wayne.Sudol at hotmail.com> wrote:
Paul, what was the timeframe when you worked on the system in Van Nuys?
I worked for a large newspaper starting in 1978 and they made their own 330 seat
Classified Sales Entry system because there wasn't anything out there that was big
enough.
It used Zentec ZMS-90 programmable terminals feeding Series /1 mini's that then fed
IBM 3032 mainframe.
I was wondering if DEC had that system available during that time.
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