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Fun with terminals for those who have never experienced them: Run Sim390[1] with MUSIC/SP. Then get a TN3270 virtual terminal software to connect to it. 3270

Fun with terminals for those who have never experienced them: Run Sim390[1] with MUSIC/SP. Then get a TN3270 virtual terminal software to connect to it. 3270 is screen-based--think of it like filling out web forms and submitting, then receiving the results. This is far different than line-based terminals (e.g. your typical *nix TTY). Compared to IBM's terminals, DEC's terminals seem completely unremarkable. [1] https://www.canpub.com/teammpg/de/sim390/index.htm https://www.canpub.com/teammpg/de/sim390/index.htm

TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
In the 90s , I wrote Windows C++ software that talked to hundreds of different 3270 applications in a very difficult attempt to screen-scrape them and display the data in a modern windows UI. It was difficult. Then take user input and submit it as a form back to the 3270 application. It would have much easier if the applications were TTY line-based.
- throwanem 5y ago
  In 2000 and 2001, I used software like that ("TSS") as a customer service rep for MBNA, which has since been bought out by Bank of America. It was incomplete, as anything offering a WinForms GUI over a 3270 client would necessarily be, but still very useful. A 3270 terminal emulator was also available; most folks quickly learned to use it for tasks the GUI didn't support, and some of us ended up preferring it for some tasks the GUI did support since it tended to be much more accommodating of muscle memory. In retrospect, it must've been a real engineering challenge to integrate with a 3270 client whether via screen-scraping or the wire protocol. Like HTML, but with structural information only designed to be parsed by the terminal, or in the screen-scraping case with no structural information at all.
  - TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
    Interesting experience. Maybe I did that in the early 2000s after all, and not the 90s. I don’t recall.
    - throwanem 5y ago
      On the other hand, it couldn't have been WinForms since that debuted the year after I quit that job, so maybe it's my recollection that's somewhat faulty. It was a long time ago!
      - TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
        It was MFC for me, not WinForms.

TedDoesntTalk 5y ago

In the 90s , I wrote Windows C++ software that talked to hundreds of different 3270 applications in a very difficult attempt to screen-scrape them and display the data in a modern windows UI. It was difficult. Then take user input and submit it as a form back to the 3270 application. It would have much easier if the applications were TTY line-based.

throwanem 5y ago
In 2000 and 2001, I used software like that ("TSS") as a customer service rep for MBNA, which has since been bought out by Bank of America. It was incomplete, as anything offering a WinForms GUI over a 3270 client would necessarily be, but still very useful. A 3270 terminal emulator was also available; most folks quickly learned to use it for tasks the GUI didn't support, and some of us ended up preferring it for some tasks the GUI did support since it tended to be much more accommodating of muscle memory. In retrospect, it must've been a real engineering challenge to integrate with a 3270 client whether via screen-scraping or the wire protocol. Like HTML, but with structural information only designed to be parsed by the terminal, or in the screen-scraping case with no structural information at all.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
  Interesting experience. Maybe I did that in the early 2000s after all, and not the 90s. I don’t recall.
  - throwanem 5y ago
    On the other hand, it couldn't have been WinForms since that debuted the year after I quit that job, so maybe it's my recollection that's somewhat faulty. It was a long time ago!
    - TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
      It was MFC for me, not WinForms.