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<p>In the TOPS-10 world, ANF-10 RJE stations could have card readers
and printers. The TOPS-10/20 DN200 also.</p>
<p>But most "RJE" station software on the DEC side made the foreign
mainframe look like a batch queue, and you would submit a file to
that queue. The software (typically DEC 2780/3780 emulation for
{TOPS-10,TOPS-20, VMS, ...}) would send the file to the mainframe
from an imaginary card reader; results similarly to an imaginary
printer (ending up in a .log or other file). I suppose "virtual"
would be the modern word for "imaginary", but it comes to the same
thing :-)<br>
</p>
<p>On the KL based systems, the software was a combination of PDP-11
front end code (a dedicated DN20) and code running on the KL. The
KS used a KDP, though there was also a "DN22" remote station.<br>
</p>
<p>I don't know exactly what UNIX did - wasn't in that world much
then. But I wouldn't be surprised if the strategy was similar -
user prepares a file, software does the code conversions to/from
EBCDIC, and the usual lies told (er, device emulation performed)
in both directions... That would certainly have led to the
emulation work you recall - especially given the fluid definitions
of character sets at the time. I don't recall the same efforts to
offload development to UNIX as to the DEC proprietary systems -
IIRC, compilers for legacy languages (COBOL, RPG, PL/I) came to
UNIX rather later, and with less rich/performant implementations.
<br>
</p>
<p>In my experience, physical card equipment, as previously noted,
was either a legacy/migration requirement, or simply a
bureaucratic legacy "requirement". The DEC value proposition was
that cards were expensive, awkward, slow, and painful to create,
modify/debug with. Interactive TS solved those problems; the
emulations were a medium of exchange between the legacy/enterprise
systems and the more productive DEC systems. <br>
</p>
<p>Readers: quite common. Punches, much less so.<br>
</p>
On 13-Feb-20 13:37, Clem Cole wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAC20D2PyFsppsP76fjqTJsHz_0zvPFPx76Oq1CnZOiUs5bOE1Q@mail.gmail.com">
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<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font
color="#0000ff">One last reply here, but CCing COFF where
this thread really belongs...</font></div>
</div>
<font color="#0000ff"><br>
</font>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr"><font color="#ff0000">On
Thu, Feb 13, 2020 at 12:34 PM Timothe Litt <<a
href="mailto:litt@ieee.org" moz-do-not-send="true">litt@ieee.org</a>>
wrote:<br>
</font></div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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<p><font color="#ff0000">OTOH, and probably more
consistent with your experience, card equipment was<br>
</font></p>
<p><font color="#ff0000"> almost unheard of when the DEC
HW ran Unix...</font></p>
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</blockquote>
<div><font color="#0000ff"><span class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">You're
probably right about that Tim, but DEC world was mostly
TOPS/TENEX/ITS and UNIX. But you would think that since
a huge usage of UNIX systems were as RJE for IBM</span> <span
class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">gear at
AT&T. In fact, that was one of the 'justifications'
if PWB. </span>I'm thinking of the machine rooms I saw
in MH, WH and IH, much less DEC, Tektronix or my
university</font><span class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font
color="#0000ff"> time. </font> </span><span
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,255)">It's
funny, I do remember a lot of work to emulate card images
and arguments between the proper character set
conversions, but I just don't remember seeing <span
class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">actual </span>card
readers or punches on the PDP-11s, only on the IBM, Univac
and CDC systems. </span></div>
<div><span
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,255)"><br>
</span></div>
<div><span
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,255)">A<span
class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">s other
people have pointed out, I'm sure they must have been
around, but my world did not have them.</span></span></div>
</div>
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</blockquote>
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