10 Apr
1999
10 Apr
'99
8 a.m.
I saw an interesting book at the library today about something called PICK
OS. I didn't get to look through the entire book, but I read enough to see
that it refers to directories as dictionaries. It seems to take a novel
approach, but I know nothing about it. Haven't even heard of it. Does
anyone here know more? Does anyone here have the PC version (mentioned in
the book)?
--Max Eskin (max82(a)surfree.com)
10 Apr
10 Apr
9:26 a.m.
I saw an interesting book at the library today about
something called PICK
OS. I didn't get to look through the entire book, but I read enough to see
that it refers to directories as dictionaries. It seems to take a novel
approach, but I know nothing about it. Haven't even heard of it. Does
anyone here know more? Does anyone here have the PC version (mentioned in
the book)?
I don't have the PC version of PICK, or any books. I've heard a little
about PICK. It's geared toward database work (the "dictionary" term
indicates a database-style implementation, rather than just being a funky
name).
The unappealing thing about PICK (for me) is that it's not extensable like
UNIX -- for a while, BASIC was the chief programming language. Then there
was another one (some sort of command language) which created the unpleasant
situation that you had to mix languages, because you couldn't do everything
you might want in a single language. Maybe things have changed now.
I'm sure there's a PICK FAQ somehwere. If you look harder at the library
(or look at a college library) you'll probably find some more books too.
-- Derek
10:36 a.m.
I think PICK runs on the Honeywell DPS systems. Isn't it a business system?
On Sat, 10 Apr 1999, Max Eskin wrote:
I saw an interesting book at the library today about
something called PICK
OS. I didn't get to look through the entire book, but I read enough to see
that it refers to directories as dictionaries. It seems to take a novel
approach, but I know nothing about it. Haven't even heard of it. Does
anyone here know more? Does anyone here have the PC version (mentioned in
the book)?
--Max Eskin (max82(a)surfree.com)
M. K. Peirce
Rhode Island Computer Museum, Inc.
215 Shady Lea Road,
North Kingstown, RI 02852
"Casta est qui nemo rogavit."
- Ovid
5:17 a.m.
Max Eskin wrote:
I saw an interesting book at the library today about
something called PICK
OS. I didn't get to look through the entire book, but I read enough to see
that it refers to directories as dictionaries. It seems to take a novel
approach, but I know nothing about it. Haven't even heard of it. Does
anyone here know more? Does anyone here have the PC version (mentioned in
the book)?
--Max Eskin (max82(a)surfree.com)
I don't know a great deal about it, however, many doctors in NSW use it as
their OS of choice, apparently has built in networking & a large amount of
medical software written for it.
Sorry I don't know more.
cheers,
Lance
10 Apr
10 Apr
8:14 p.m.
At 14:17 11/04/99 -0400, Lance Lyon wrote:
I don't know a great deal about it, however, many
doctors in NSW use it as
their OS of choice, apparently has built in networking & a large amount of
medical software written for it.
Pick is also used as the environment for one of the more popular library
on-line catalog systems known as URICA. We've just replaced ours with III
running on Digital Unix (bit of a culture shock for the librarians :-).
Pick is still alive and kicking (see www.pick.com for more details than you
probably need to know...). BTW, Pick was designed/developed (and as far as
I know originally written by) Dick Pick - hence the name.
It has some interesting documentation, the one I liked most was
"Introduction to Reality" which was housed in my computer room for quite a
while (although I wasn't game to find out what reality was :-)
Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)latrobe.edu.au
Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479
1999
La Trobe University | "If God had wanted soccer played in the
Melbourne Australia 3083 | air, the sky would be painted green"
10:31 p.m.
Max Eskin wrote:
PICK was used on a lot of turnkey systems for the automotive, insurance
and medical industries.
It's main os competitor for medical software was probably Mumps also known
as M.
It ran on many of the 16 bit minicomputers including the DEC PDP11
and Honeywell mini's. During the '80's it began being hosted under
Unix instead of running directly on the metal like it did on the lesser
powered 16 bit machines.
It (like Mumps) combined database features and the OS and a common
development language in one package.
Bill
---
bpechter@shell.monmouth.com|pechter@pechter.dyndns.org
Three things never anger: First, the one who runs your DEC,
The one who does Field Service and the one who signs your check.
I saw an interesting book at the library today
about something called PICK
OS. I didn't get to look through the entire book, but I read enough to see
that it refers to directories as dictionaries. It seems to take a novel
approach, but I know nothing about it. Haven't even heard of it. Does
anyone here know more? Does anyone here have the PC version (mentioned in
the book)?
--Max Eskin (max82(a)surfree.com)
I don't know a great deal about it, however, many doctors in NSW use it as
their OS of choice, apparently has built in networking & a large amount of
medical software written for it.
Sorry I don't know more.
cheers,
Lance
11 Apr
11 Apr
4:31 a.m.
No discussion of PICK would be complete without noting the exceptional
enthusiasm (fanatacism?) of its adherents. Dick Pick has quite a
following. Next mailing that I get from them, I'll pass on the contact
information.
> I saw an interesting book at the library today
about something called PICK
> OS. I didn't get to look through the entire book, but I read enough to see
Ah, but one of the greatest accidental titles:
One of the publishers came out with a series of books called "Pocket
Guides". "Unix Pocket Guide", "DOS Pocket Guide", and, ....
"Pick Pocket Guide"!
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at258＠osfn.org -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
dpeschel＠u.washington.edu -
H.Davies＠latrobe.edu.au -
lwlyon＠ozemail.com.au -
max82＠surfree.com -
pechter＠pechter.dyndns.org