3 ms·
That was the 1960s-80s way of working with computers. Multiple terminals connected to a single timesharing mainframe (or mini, for that matter). You might have
by flyinghamster 3y ago
That was the 1960s-80s way of working with computers. Multiple terminals connected to a single timesharing mainframe (or mini, for that matter). You might have a network like DECNET, but mostly it would be hardwired terminals, or if you were less lucky, a dialup modem and an acoustic coupler at a blazing 300 bps. You were sharing one machine with potentially dozens of other developers.
Legacies of this abound in Linux (even the ability to SSH in is a descendant of this world). Commands like "who" are there to show who's logged in, and there's even an entire process accounting system that can be switched on to bill your users for CPU time.
- dgadj38998 3y agoWas there a way to message other people who are logged in? Like a slack equivalent?
- flyinghamster 3y agoOn Unix, there was the "talk" command for split-screen chat, and also "write" to just send a message to someone else's terminal subject to permission with the "mesg" command. Not all systems had such provisions (or, in come cases, they had to be written by users).
- ianmcgowan 3y agotalk, or later ntalk in Unix. Or wall to send to everyone. I used a system in the 80's (Pick DB) that had a send-message command. Also tandem which allowed you to take over someone's terminal like screen-sharing now. If you were the super-user you could do it without asking for permission, and start typing messages to the unlucky user..
- debo_ 3y agoWe used `talk` all the time in our university Solaris labs when I was there from 2000-2005. Mostly insults, but it was fun.
- theodpHN 3y agoLong before Slack, there was TSO SEND. :-) https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/explorer-for-zos/3.1.1?topic=message-tso-send-command https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/explorer-for-zos/3.1.1?topic=mes...