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,,, Wang VS
This was a very Unique OS, I have seen nothing similar to
it at all.
What follows are some notes I remember about it. I used
and developed on this OS for over 18 years, but my memory
is a bit fuzzy.
* The hardware was very robust. By that I mean it the
hardware could be abused to the point were other
vendors' hardware would have failed. I have seen
these systems in computer rooms that were constantly
kept above 95F (35C), water dripping on them from
a leak roof for hours on end, dust everywhere.
These were perfect for manufacturing environments.
* Only 2 type of files, Indexed (ISAM) and Consecutive
(Text).
* Record Sizes can be set as Fixed or Variable Length.
* Consecutive could be looked at as UNIX Byte Streams,
but not really.
* A Flag could be set to allow the File to be
compressed or uncompressed.
* Backups were performed to 9 tack reel tapes.
Also the multiple CRC Errors on restore will give
you a good reason to drink :)
* Disk Drives were call Volumes.
* Only 1 "Directory Level". On the VS these were
called "Libraries".
* Max Library and File Name Size was 8 characters.
* No lowercase characters.
* There is no concept of a "Command Line", all
activates where accomplished via TUI Screens.
* No such things as "file extensions".
* Instead of saying "I deleted a file", one would say
"I scratched a file". That was very common usage
for people and customers using the VS.
* Users did not have what one would call a home
directory.
* If I remember correctly, you set Volume/Library/File
Access based upon user ID (it has been a while).
* Development tools were quite good, you had 2 full
screen editors, "EDIT" an "ADEPT", plus a number of
code generation tools.
* Creating TUI screens were trivial, easier than
anything I have seen since. TUI Screen Creation on
the VS puts UNIX curses to shame. Also, the screen
generators on SAP where terrible when compared to
what the VS had.
* The Terminals you connected to the VS were not dumb
but I think an 8 bit tiny computer.
* When Microsoft Windows came out, Wang created an GUI
Application you could use to connect to the VS from
your PC.
* There was a database system called "PACE", with PACE
you could create a very complex business application
within 2 days. The tools were very smart, I have
seen nothing as powerful or easy since. It is too
bad PACE was not ported to other Systems.
* These were pre-internet systems, but could be
networked using WSN (Wang System Numbers).
* Kind of odd, but you could execute Wang WP on the VS.
Supported languages:
====================
* COBOL
* FORTRON
* PL/1
* C
* assembler, rather similar to IBM Mainframe assembler.
* Procedure Language, a powerful scripting language.
* There were others that I have since forgotten about.
Wang VS Procedure Language Examples
SHA512 for "Wang VS Procedure Language Examples"
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