The Works Records System and 3270's updating fields in buffer

1 point

10 years ago

The IBM 3270 DID have selective updating. If "Forms" were used (i.e. BMS mapping under CICS for example) THAT only worked on READ modified commands but, natively, any byte on the 1920 byte screen buffer could be updated independently.

When the ENTER key (or PF key) was pressed, only the modified data was read - preceded by a 3-byte "Set buffer address" (SBA) order - to identify the field on the screen.

The READ BUFFER command was only used mainly for debugging purposes and was actually used in OLIVER - my own developed CICS test/debugging System that was in use at more than 600 blue chip corporations in the 1970's and through to the 1990's.

I have recently posted some early promotional material about OLIVER and its companion product SIMON to several Google+ collections. It was, by the way, never called "IBM OLIVER" - that was the result of some Wikipedian editor deciding to prefix the name with "IBM" (don't ask me why!)

Here is a "Google sheets" document discussing the "WORKS RECORDS SYSTEM" (that OLIVER was used to create in the early 1970's at ICI in Cheshire , UK)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19mi9x31pA5u4-GkYrj1gT45Rd18t4vqODgtMrIKAP4E/edit#gid=1710083428

and below are various links to the publications mentioned above about OLIVER and SIMON:-

https://plus.google.com/u/1/collection/wUwasB

https://plus.google.com/u/1/collection/oXlasB

https://plus.google.com/u/1/collection/cDbasB

https://plus.google.com/u/1/collection/Mk1asB

https://plus.google.com/u/1/collection/8vIZcB

Please can someone move all this to the appropriate thread (mentioning these topics and my name "Ken Dakin"). I cannot fathom how to reply or make a comment about an existing thread.