offer - OS/2 for the PDP-11

[Dan Gahlinger]

I personally have seen cash machines crash that were using OS/2 (a very long time ago)

it used to be every cash machine in the city I live in ran on OS/2, it was a "staple"
I thought this was widely known.

and yes, they crashed. I miss those screens. But I'd know an OS/2 screen anywhere.

there were rumors that IBM was going to open source OS/2, but not sure what came of it, if anything.

anyhow, I just got back from vacation so I'm looking for the tape, etc now. may take a while.
I might even have to rebuild my vax and tape drive. yippy!

Dan.
----------------------------------------
> Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:38:28 +0000
> From: lproven at gmail.com
> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
> Subject: Re: offer - OS/2 for the PDP-11
> 
> On 07/01/2008, madodel  wrote:
>> Liam Proven wrote:
>>> On 05/01/2008, madodel  wrote:
>>>> jd wrote:
>>>>> Jules Richardson wrote:
>>>>>> jd wrote:
>>>>>>> Jules Richardson wrote:
>>>>>>>> (Having said that, some ATM machines in the UK ran OS/2 for years after
>>>>>>>> it was a dead OS elsewhere - [snipsnip] )
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> It's been used in some ATM's in the States, too. People have mentioned
>>>>>>> getting to the desktop or a shell and manipulating ATM's from there,
>>>>>>> somehow.
>>>>>> Weird. I've certainly seen at least one UK ATM fall over and break out
>>>>>> of its program (this was quite a few years ago) - but I'm amazed that
>>>>>> anyone would design an ATM in such a way that the keypad buttons were
>>>>>> directly readable by the native OS for just that reason.
>>>>> Considering how naive about physical and electronic security just
>>>>> about everyone was then, I would not be at all surprised. This was at
>>>>> about the time OS/2 first came out and found it's way into industrial
>>>>> equipment, I think. The KISS mentality was still in full effect and
>>>>> hardware design for ATM's still consisted of collecting off-the-shelf
>>>>> components and tossing them together. An ATM would have just one
>>>>> console and that would be the front monitor and keypad, often by
>>>>> default, and the rear monitor and keypad or keyboard, if so equipped,
>>>>> that would require using a hardware or software switch, like those old
>>>>> Inmac KVM-without-the-M switch boxes. Of course, for convenience, it
>>>>> was possible to do stuff from the front keypad, such as use a
>>>>> maintenance menu. Eventually, when ATM design evolved, such convenient
>>>>> features faded into oblivion.
>>>> I have never seen an OS/2 based ATM at a command prompt.  It must have been
>>>> a windoze based ATM.  And many ATMs still run OS/2.  It is only being
>>>> replaced by windoze on new models since IBM refused to support the hardware
>>>> any more.
>>>
>>> You are very confident for someone asserting that another person has
>>> not seen  something that they say they have. How can you know?
>>>
>>
>> I've been using OS/2 since version 1.3.
> 
> So you came in after me, then. :¬)
> 
>> I'm fairly well acquainted with
>> its capabilities.  Yes I can be wrong and maybe you saw what you think you
>> saw, but all you have is a story.  Where is your proof other then that you
>> think you saw it was OS/2?   I can't prove a negative, but you should be
>> able to prove that it did happen.
> 
> How, exactly? You want a photograph? Sorry, but even if I had one,
> such things are readily photoshopped now. If you want signed witness
> statements, well, again, expect to be disappointed.
> 
> I know OS/2. It's one of a tiny handful of programs for the PC I've
> ever actually bought with my own money; indeed I suspect I've spent
> more on OS/2 than on all other PC software put together.
> 
> I know an OS/2 command prompt when I see one.
> 
> I also know that OS/2 was once very widely used in cash machines; this
> is well-known and an objective fact, and indeed cash machines were one
> of the last strongholds of OS/2.
> 
> So what is it that you have difficulty believing? That OS/2 crashes?
> Hint: run up a Warp box, put Fractint on it, and try some of the
> clever hacked VGA screen modes. Watch the TRAP errors abound.
> 
> That an ATM's software would be so badly written that it would fail to
> a command prompt? If that is the case, you must have led a very
> sheltered life.
> 
> That someone has seen something you personally have not? Again, this
> is a very widespread occurrence.
> 
>> If this were a common occurrence then we would be able to find some
>> documentation of it other then just someone's antidotal remembrance
> 
> I think you perhaps mean "anecdotal", as in an anecdotal account.
> 
>>  that it
>> might have happened and it might have been OS/2.  There is ample evidence
>> of crashed windoze ATMs on the net.  Like I said I have never seen that.
> 
> You don't get out much, then!
> 
> Google for it. Try an image search for "atm crash". Here's a gallery,
> including a crashed OS/2 airport terminal:
> http://julian.coccia.com/gallery/wincrashes
> 
>> But I've never seen a crashed windoze ATM either.  I have seen broken ATM's
>> but never at an OS/2 prompt.  And as I also posted, if the original ATM
>> code programmer had known what they were doing then the program itself
>> should have been set as the shell, so no command prompt should have ever
>> been attainable.
> 
> So in summary, all you're saying is that you've never seen it and you
> find it surprising that there are programmers who are so incompetent?
> 
> -- 
> Liam Proven • Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
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