Seems as if many of us cut our first HP teeth with the 2000, particularly in
an educational setting. I was the systems analyst in charge of educational
applications for the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal in the
early '70's. Our main number-cruncher was a Univac 9400 (anyone remember
them?). Somebody decided we needed to provide online access to our high
schools, the major purpose being to provide a BASIC interpreter in support
of the Computer Science curriculum. Each high school (about 16) had a single
terminal using "paper tape".
 
Univac was engaged to develop the software to support this service on our
9400. The project was an unmitigated disaster and, after about 2 years, was
dropped. We bought an HP2000C which - to our great delight - worked like a
charm . All the high schools were able to interpret - and later some to
compile - their BASIC routines online without any hitches.
 
I recall that a printed list of available HP2000 canned programs was
available from Cupertino & we ordered some of them - a primitive precursor
of the CSL, I guess. Also, we experimented with IMAGE/2000(!) on the 2000
Access which replaced the 2000C...
 
HP's computer division in Montreal in that era operated out of the back of a
factory dedicated mainly (I think) to process control components for the
aerospace industry which appeared to be HP's bread-and-butter. We appeared
to share with the rest of Canada a single computer marketing representative,
Sharrif Alaily. And, as we say in Quebec, plus que change, plus que la meme
chose (ask Denys to translate if you must).
 
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Eric Bender, Coordinator, Computer Services
                     John Abbott College
                     P.O. Box 2000
                     Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec, Canada     H9X 3L9
 
Voice: (514) 457-6610, Ext. 208        Fax: (514) 457-3027
 
E-Mail:  [log in to unmask]
 
Visit our Website:  http://www.JohnAbbott.Qc.Ca
 
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