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 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 very powerful scripting language.
• There were others that I have since forgotten about.

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$Id: wangvs.gmi,v 2.9 2024/10/15 13:05:39 jmccue Exp $