Open the article and search for "Escape Recognition, Noise Words, Help" which was encapsulated into the COMND JSYS in TOPS-10 and TOPS-20. One of the most key

Open the article and search for "Escape Recognition, Noise Words, Help" which was encapsulated into the COMND JSYS in TOPS-10 and TOPS-20. One of the most key things about Escape Recognition on TOPS-20 was that it could used by novices and experts alike. Novices could type a question mark (?) at any point, even before logging in, and the available commands would be displayed. An expert could also type a question mark at any point in a complex command line to display that pesky option that he'd otherwise forgotten about. TOPS-20 occupied entirely too much of my time during college. This 1982 Rolling Stone article about LOTS-A and its users at Stanford captured the feeling well http://www.designersnotebook.com/Scrapbook/Hackers_in_Paradise/hackers_in_paradise.htm http://www.designersnotebook.com/Scrapbook/Hackers_in_Paradi... If you're interested in reading about the COMND JSYS, see chapter 5 of this Macro Assembler book from 1980. ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/dec20/assembler-guide.txt