On Mon, 10 Feb 2020 21:50:59 +0000, Pew, Curtis G wrote:
>On Feb 10, 2020, at 3:01 PM, Mike Schwab wrote:
>>
>> ASCII wasn't finalized when the S/360 was announced. And it needed to
>> use existing 7 bit peripherals, tapes, etc.
>
>But System/360 was pupposed to be an ASCII machine, or at least to transition
>to ASCII long term. There was a bit in the PSW to determine if ASCII was in
>use or not. The IBM engineers, programmers, lower-level managers, and
>*customers* didn’t understand the importance of it, though, so it never
>happened. In System/360 the ASCII bit was repurposed to switch between EC mode
>(needed for DAT) and BC mode.
>
>Today those of us who use z/OS, etc. are paying the price for that lack of
>vision.
>
+1. The late Bob Bemer with impressive credentials argued compellingly:
https://web.archive.org/web/20180513204153/http://www.bobbemer.com/P-BIT.HTM
... that ASCII was ready; IBM wasn't.
-- gil
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions,
send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
