RFC 379

Using TSO at CCN

📅 published August 1972, from ietf

RFC #379 is by R.T. Braden of UCLA/CCN (NIC 11121), dated AUGUST 11, 1972 🌸. The Categories, Obsoletes and Updates fields are all blank, so nothing is listed there. Bestie, it's giving a little time capsule of the early Internet 🧚

USING TSO AT CCN ✨

okay so IBM's Time Sharing Option ("TSO") is now available at CCN for use over the Network with Telnet Protocol 💖. CCN doesn't call it "production" yet, since there are still a bunch of restrictions and glitches to fix or document 🙈. BUT it's pretty stable now and runs on a regular schedule, so an experienced programmer can totally get stuff done there 💅. To use TSO you need a valid CCN charge (billing) number and a user-id 🎀. If you don't have a charge number yet, or want a TSO user-id, contact Barbara Noble at (213) 825-7438 or (213) 825-7452 🫶. Right now there's no charge for TSO use, although any batch jobs you submit from TSO will be charged to your account 💸. If you don't have a paid account, Barbara can assign an overhead charge number for experimental TSO use ✨.

Modes of TSO Use 🦋

(1) Conversational Remote Job Entry

Using TSO, you can write an OS job stream with the TSO EDIT command, SUBMIT it to batch execution, check its STATUS, and bring the OUTPUT back into EDIT to look at 🧚. This is the move for anyone with a TIP who wants to process jobs at CCN without going through NETRJS on a friendly TENEX machine 💜. Any batch job can be submitted this way 🔥.

(2) Foreground Execution

A lot of OS/360 programs can run straight from your terminal, with varying amounts of pain 😭. TSO has commands that give you the EXEC and DD card facilities, and the output stream can be sent to your terminal 🌈. There are some important limitations though:

  1. The foreground region size is limited. Right now it's 128K, but that's going to get expanded 🍓.
  2. Every dataset you reference has to live on resident disk packs. No mounting disks or tapes 💀.
  3. You get time-sliced and swapped, so it can be very slow 🐢.

There are two important cases of foreground execution:

  • (A) The TEST command gives you DDT-like debugging for foreground programs 🐛.
  • (B) Your own program can interact with your terminal ⭐.
NOTE: It is not yet possible for a program, either in batch or foreground, to open direct Network connections. 🙅‍♀️

Hours of Operation 🌸

Monday through Friday, 6 A.M. - Noon PDT (or 9 A.M. - 3 P.M. EDT) ⏰. These hours will be extended before September 1, 1972 🎀.

Telnet Protocol 🔌

The document "USING TSO VIA ARPA NETWORK VIRTUAL TERMINAL", RFC #377, explains how to use a Telnet NVT to get into TSO 💖. Using a real 2741 locally is pretty different, ngl 🙈. RFC #377 covers the current server Telnet, complete with an annoying bug 😤. A later version is planned to add these things that aren't available yet:

  • (a) "FULL DUPLEX", i.e., CCN echoing ✨.
  • (b) Lower case input 🔤.
  • (c) The special character translation that NETRJS users with Model 33 Teletypes get (see RFC #338) 🧾.
  • (d) Optional specification of single CR or single LF as end-of-line indication 🫧.
  • (e) Hopefully, the input attention bug described in RFC #377 will be fixed 🤞.

Disk Space 💾

TSO automatically puts datasets created in the foreground (for example, by EDIT or ALLOC) on the right resident disk pack 🫶. Every TSO dataset is cataloged, so you can reference it by name alone, no volume or unit specification needed 🦋. For most purposes, you can pretend we have one big disk 🌈.

                                                                  --- ---
     ----

Dataset Names 🏷️

The standard IBM version of TSO uses the TSO user-id as the highest index of each dataset name. At CCN, the _two_ highest levels are the charge number and the user-id of whoever created the dataset 💅. TSO has been modified to match ✨.

Dataset Access Control 🔐

Generally, under TSO you can read, write, or execute any dataset named with the charge number you're logged on with 💜. You can also rename or scratch any dataset under that logon charge number 🧹. There's no provision for public or read-only datasets at present 🙃.

Logging On 🚪

Most Network users only need the simple form of LOGON 💖:

logon     <user-id>

Here's what it looks like in action 👀:

     user:  logon uid            (Use your user-id)

     TSO:   LOGON UID            (TSO repeats line for reasons of its own)

     TSO:  ENTER PASSWORD        (TSO asks for password)

     user:  xyz

     TSO:  UID LOGON IN PROGRESS AT 11:37:43 ON AUGUST 9, 1984
     TSO:  LOGON PROCEEDING      (It may take a while.  This message will
                                 come every 30 seconds.)

     TSO:  WELCOME TO TSO.  GOOD LUCK

     TSO:  READY

User-ids get created in TSO with a blank password 🫣. To add or change your password, use the CHANGE command 🔑. If you have TSO access under more than one charge number, LOGON will ask which charge number to use for the session 🎀.

Where to Get Help 🆘

  1. For a list of TSO commands, enter: help commands 📜.
  2. For detailed syntax and function of a specific command, enter: help <command name> <qualifiers> 🔍. Type help help for details 💡.
  3. The SEND command can be handy for live help from PCN (Pete Nielsen) or WDD (Bill Drain) when they're signed on 💬. You can check if PCN or WDD is on by sending them a trial message 🧪.

Example:

       User:  send 'hello' user(wdd)

       TSO:   USER WDD NOT LOGGED ON

       TSO:   READY

       user:  send 'hello' user(pcn)

       TSO:   READY

       user:  send 'edit is acting funny' user(pcn)

       TSO:   READY

Here "PCN" was logged on and got your message, so you can chat with him through SEND 🥹. One SEND text is limited to 115 characters 📏.

  1. You can also leave a message for wdd to get when he logs on by typing: send '<message>' user(wdd) logon 📬.
  2. To message the CCN operator, just enter: send '<message>' 🤖.
  3. You can call the CCN Telephone Consultant at (213) 825-7452, Monday through Friday, 10-12 A.M. PDT and 1-4 P.M. (except 3-4 P.M. on Thursday) ☎️. If the consultant doesn't know the answer, they'll look into it and call you back 🫶.
  4. You can call Barbara Noble, the general contact for Network user problems, at (213) 825-7438 📞. Barbara is also one of the Telephone consultants 💖.
  5. If all else fails, call Bill Drain, the CCN Systems Programmer in charge of TSO installation, at (213) 825-7474 😩. If he doesn't answer, call my secretary at (213) 825-7518 and leave a message for Bill 📝.
  6. You can also send a message to someone at CCN by submitting this pseudo-job through RJS at TSO 🧚‍♀️:
           //<charge number>  JOB 'BIN=9906',MSGLASS=C
           //*  <message>
           //*
           //*
           //*
           //*
           etc.
   [ This RFC was put into machine readable form for entry ]
   [ into the online RFC archives by BBN Corp. under the   ]
   [ direction of Alex McKenzie.                      1/97 ]
📦 where this page comes from