10 Sep
2009
10 Sep
'09
11:23 a.m.
Speaking of front panels, I've always wondered:
In my days with Burroughs systems, the operator consoles that had
"front panels" and many of their maintenance panels used illuminated
momentary push buttons that toggled on/off; that always struck me
as more intuitive (not to mention faster to set up) than separate lights
and switches.
Granted it would require extra logic to latch the states, but was that
kind of front panel ever used on any of the micros and minis that we
discuss here?
mike
10 Sep
10 Sep
11:32 a.m.
On Sep 10, 2009, at 11:23 AM, M H Stein wrote:
Speaking of front panels, I've always wondered:
In my days with Burroughs systems, the operator consoles that had
"front panels" and many of their maintenance panels used illuminated
momentary push buttons that toggled on/off; that always struck me
as more intuitive (not to mention faster to set up) than separate
lights
and switches.
Granted it would require extra logic to latch the states, but was that
kind of front panel ever used on any of the micros and minis that we
discuss here?
Yes, the HP 2114 comes to mind. It was a bit different because the
switches were capacitive sense (so there was no physical movement).
TTFN - Guy
12:12 p.m.
M H Stein wrote:
In my days with Burroughs systems, the operator
consoles that had
"front panels" and many of their maintenance panels used illuminated
momentary push buttons that toggled on/off; that always struck me
as more intuitive (not to mention faster to set up) than separate lights
and switches.
The DEC KI10 (PDP-10 processor ca. 1973) did that also, as did the Fabritek
BI-TRAN SIX. It is NOT faster for data entry, because you effectively
have to manually
XOR each entry with the previous one. It might be OK if there were a
clear button (as
there is on the BI-TRAN SIX), or if the entry word cleared itself after
deposit, though the
latter would be bad when you actually want to enter consecutive
identical non-zero
words.
Toggles (with suitable handles) are much easier for binary entry,
because you can
push them up or down without regard to their previous state. With
practice you
can easily enter octal data three bits at a time using three fingers.
12:34 p.m.
Speaking of front panels, I've always wondered:
In my days with Burroughs systems, the operator consoles that had
"front panels" and many of their maintenance panels used illuminated
momentary push buttons that toggled on/off; that always struck me
as more intuitive (not to mention faster to set up) than separate lights
and switches.
Granted it would require extra logic to latch the states, but was that
kind of front panel ever used on any of the micros and minis that we
discuss here?
Never sene such a panel on a micro, but HP used them on some their
machines and peripherals. I am pretty suee that's how the panel on the
HP2100A behaves, and I know it's how the panel on the HP6940
multiprogrammer (a versatile I/O system) works, because I restored the
latter a couple of mnths back.
Perhaps it's beacues I got to use the toggle-switch and seaprate lamps
panel first, but I much prefer those ot the illumanted buttons ones. But
I susepct it's very much personal taste.
-tony
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