Early 360 machines (Was: Front panel switches - what did they do?)

[Paul Berger]

On 2016-05-25 2:06 PM, Jon Elson wrote:
> On 05/25/2016 12:01 PM, Noel Chiappa wrote:
>>      > From: Jon Elson
>>
>>      > the /20 was intended for very specific uses in 360 shops, and 
>> maybe as
>>      > an entry-level "foot in the door" to move totally tab card 
>> shops into
>>      > the 360 family. The only /20s I ever saw were used as offline 
>> spool
>>      > printers and card readers in large 360 shops.
>>
>> I interned at IBM Bermuda, and they had a 360/20 as their main 
>> service bureau
>> machine; it had (IIRC) a card reader/punch, 4 tape drives, and a 4301
>> printer. When I got there, they had just gotten in a System 3 (two
>> single-platter hard drives, a 4301 printer, and I'm not sure what 
>> else) to
>> replace it.
>>
>>
> I'm guessing, maybe, that would be a 1403 printer?  There were 1403 
> and 1443 printers.
>
> The only language supported on the 360/20 was RPG.  For a mostly tab 
> card type of operation, you could actually do a lot in RPG. Otherwise, 
> you had to write in machine language and get it assembled on another 
> system.
>
> Jon
RPG was also a very popular  language on S/3, S/32, S/34, S/36, S/38 and 
AS/400 however as time went by it changed a lot and I am told the RPG on 
the AS/400 bears little resemblance to the original.  The closest I even 
got to RPG was when writing code for S/36 we needed a test file and 
looked at DFU as a means of creating one, we scrapped that idea when we 
found we needed to use RPG specs to describe the file, and modified a 
COBOL program one of my coworkers had to create the file.

Paul.