3 ms·

Do you have a video that shows an example of this text entry system? I'm interested in seeing this.

by apfsx 7y ago

triska 7y ago
Sometimes I see it on terminals for instance when checking into a hotel, opening an account in a bank, booking a flight, interacting with the tax administration etc. One important point that makes them so efficient to use is that everything can be accessed using only the keyboard. For my personal use, I have simulated such forms using Emacs, and especially its Widget Library: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/widget.html https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/widget.h... This is a bit similar to what you get with a SCREEN SECTION in COBOL.
- userbinator 7y ago
  Anyone who has used the BIOS setup function of a PC before the EFI bloat took over will find that interface familiar, it's certainly easy to use and quite efficient. Here's an example screenshot: http://www.buildeasypc.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/step12_bios_setup_h.jpg http://www.buildeasypc.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/step12...
- epc 7y ago
  Could also be ISPF dialogs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISPF https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISPF, https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/zosbasics/com.ibm.zos.zconcepts/zconc_whatisispf.htm https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/zosbasics/com.ib...).
Zenst 7y ago
In the early 80's we had terminals (Newberry being one brand iirc)that would talk to the mainframe and in this instance a Honeywell Bull DPS8 range and these terminals had block mode, so could just type out using the cursor keys to navigate and key in all your code or feild attributes as you would for a transactional screen layout input interface. Then having effectly edited and dealt with localy, could hit send into the edit buffer and covered much WYSWYG form of input and layout for screens. So many ways of doing screen editing and text entry in the real early pre PC days would of been down to the terminals and local cursor, send whole screen block mode form of editing. Unlike character mode (very early systems way of pooling terminals) in which it had to handshake each and every keystroke in effect. Though even some of these terminals could be configured to allow full screen editing mode and sent via character mode batch polling. Terminals were not cheap back then either and when the PC came out, terminal emulation software was one of the big sellers in some markets who would spend lots on the early PC's and more on this software as cheaper than the dedicated terminal offerings.

Do you have a video that shows an example of this text entry system? I'm interested in seeing this.

by apfsx 7y ago

Do you have a video that shows an example of this text entry system? I'm interested in seeing this.

Sometimes I see it on terminals for instance when checking into a hotel, opening an account in a bank, booking a flight, interacting with the tax administration etc. One important point that makes them so efficient to use is that everything can be accessed using only the keyboard. For my personal use, I have simulated such forms using Emacs, and especially its Widget Library: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/widget.html https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/widget.h... This is a bit similar to what you get with a SCREEN SECTION in COBOL.

userbinator 7y ago
Anyone who has used the BIOS setup function of a PC before the EFI bloat took over will find that interface familiar, it's certainly easy to use and quite efficient. Here's an example screenshot: http://www.buildeasypc.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/step12_bios_setup_h.jpg http://www.buildeasypc.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/step12...
epc 7y ago
Could also be ISPF dialogs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISPF https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISPF, https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/zosbasics/com.ibm.zos.zconcepts/zconc_whatisispf.htm https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/zosbasics/com.ib...).

Zenst 7y ago

In the early 80's we had terminals (Newberry being one brand iirc)that would talk to the mainframe and in this instance a Honeywell Bull DPS8 range and these terminals had block mode, so could just type out using the cursor keys to navigate and key in all your code or feild attributes as you would for a transactional screen layout input interface. Then having effectly edited and dealt with localy, could hit send into the edit buffer and covered much WYSWYG form of input and layout for screens. So many ways of doing screen editing and text entry in the real early pre PC days would of been down to the terminals and local cursor, send whole screen block mode form of editing. Unlike character mode (very early systems way of pooling terminals) in which it had to handshake each and every keystroke in effect. Though even some of these terminals could be configured to allow full screen editing mode and sent via character mode batch polling. Terminals were not cheap back then either and when the PC came out, terminal emulation software was one of the big sellers in some markets who would spend lots on the early PC's and more on this software as cheaper than the dedicated terminal offerings.