Also O/T but at UCL we had these same displays connected to GEC 4000 machines. Seemed futuristic at the time. :-)
(And we deemed it exotic that these Computer Centre GEC machines were connected to Computer Science Department PDP 11s via Cambridge. Both sets of machines were, of course, in Central London. Now we'd consider that "obtuse" routing humdrum.) :-) Cheers, Martin Martin Packer WW z/OS Performance, Capacity and Architecture, IBM Technology Sales +44-7802-245-584 email: martin_pac...@uk.ibm.com Twitter / Facebook IDs: MartinPacker Blog: https://mainframeperformancetopics.com Mainframe, Performance, Topics Podcast Series (With Marna Walle): https://anchor.fm/marna-walle Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu_65HaYgksbF6Q8SQ4oOvA From: "Tom Brennan" <t...@tombrennansoftware.com> To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Date: 01/09/2021 05:17 Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: 3277 graphics Sent by: "IBM Mainframe Discussion List" <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> O/T - I was a user on one of those Tektronix displays from about 1979 to 1982, but no 3277 or mainframe. Mine was connected to a DEC computer, all put together by a company called ComputerVision. This pic shows almost exactly what I used: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computervision#/media/File:Computervision_piping.agr.jpg On 8/31/2021 8:24 PM, Charles Bailey wrote: > Back in the 1980's, when I was using MVS full time, we had some > Tektronix graphics displays connected to an adapter on some of our 3277 > terminals. These displays had storage screens where the screen could > only have new stuff written to it. When the display got too cluttered > you would have to tell the software to clear the screen and redraw it. > We had a few application programs that made use of these displays. > Later, in the 90's we got some new displays that had more conventional > display tubes with hardware that more or less emulated the old Tektronix > displays so that the same software would work with them. At one time I > had a PS/2 with a microchannel adapter card that would interface with > these new displays. I understand that the x3270 terminal emulator > program for Unix-like systems has a mode that emulates the 3277 graphics > in a separate window. Some of the graphics programs used a routine > called GAPE that accepted function calls from the application and > generated the drawing data stream to the display. Is GAPE available > somewhere? > > GAPE was written by the same person who wrote CLIC. There was a chapter > in the CLIC user manual that explained the use of GAPE. The author > explained that he didn't like the graphics support program that IBM > supplied with the PRPQ graphics attachment so he wrote his own. (Maybe > that was the GASP you were referring to.) I believe the user manual > contained the source code for playing checkers, written in CLIC, as a > demo of how to use GAPE. At some point, when PL/AS was my primary > programming language, I rewrote the checkers program in PL/AS as an > exercise in learning to call GAPE from a PL/AS program. > > I originally posted this on the h390-...@groups.io news group and > someone there suggested that I post a query here. > > Charles Bailey > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN Unless stated otherwise above: IBM United Kingdom Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number 741598. Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3AU ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
