On 8/13/2013 5:13 PM, Tony B. Shepherd wrote:
> Hey there!
>
> On 8/13/2013 2:20 PM, Jeff Kell wrote:
>> Just wrote this up for our campus newsletter.  What a ride!

I have to open this response to the list...

Tony has been lurking for some time on the list :)  He was my original
mentor at UTC, designed the student database (IMAGE) from scratch, and
formulated the original SPL-supplied COBOL interface we incorporated for
terminal input and database calls.  They later evolved, at least the
COBOL database bits, into macro supported expansions of straightforward
database calls. 

Tony was miles ahead... very forward thinking.  It was a design that
lasted the 36-year history of our system (with some additions, but the
core remained).  I owe my career to him... pointing me in the right
direction at the right times.  We did the SPL bits that made the COBOL
possible (pre-VIEW/VPLUS, as we could not afford the terminals).  We had
constructs in the terminal I/O like....

   MOVE "[TOP,CLR] Enter student ID > X(8)" TO OUT--INFO, PERFORM "TERMIO".

The SPL routine had the common parameter addresses stashed in the stack
(DB-negative), supported basic terminal controls (above is home cursor,
clear screen), and input editing (8 bytes input, alphanumeric).  It was
cool at the time :)

I threw in a few bits here and there (assembler optimization of much of
the TERMIO routines) but he was the thinker.  And like the 3000, it also
managed to last for 36 years without a reasonable alternative.

But I digress.  I can't take the limelight of our 3000 history without
bringing in my mentor :)

Jeff

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