DOCS (Display Operator Console Support) was a software package for IBM mainframes by CFS Inc., enabling access to the system console using 3270-compatible terminals. Computer operators communicated with IBM

mainframe A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...

computers using an

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typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selective ...

-like console that came standard on most IBM 360 and 370 computer, except a few upper end models that offered video consoles and the Model 20 which came standard without a console. The majority of smaller and less expensive IBM 360s and 370s came equipped with these ruggedized

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keyboard devices. The Selectric was a major step up from the

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s (TTY) associated with

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and smaller systems, but still clunky. The video consoles provided with certain models were not considered particularly user friendly, and they ignored two thirds of IBM's mainframe market, DOS and its VSE descendants. DOCS replaced or supplanted the typewriter

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with a video screen. In practice, it worked a little like present-day instant messenger programs ( ICQ, QQ, AIM,

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, etc.), with a data entry line at the bottom and messages scrolling in real time up the screen. The commands were otherwise identical. DOCS was available for DOS, DOS/VS, DOS/VSE, and came packaged with third party operating systems, such as EDOS from The Computer Software Company, later acquired by Nixdorf.

Platforms

Software

The product ran under several DOS-related platforms: *

DOS/VS Disk Operating System/360, also DOS/360, or simply DOS, is the discontinued first member of a sequence of operating systems for IBM System/360, System/370 and later mainframes. It was announced by IBM on the last day of 1964, and it was first de ...

* DOS/VSE *

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...

, modified * EDOS * vDOS

Hardware

Several vendors offered DOCS as part of their OS: *

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* Magnuson *

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westin ...

Development

DOCS was developed by CFS, Inc. of

Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, in the United States, and part of the Boston metropolitan area. Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Allston, Fenway–Kenmore, Mission Hill, Jamaica Plain, and ...

at the Kayser-Roth data center in

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. Dick Goran wrote the video interface. Leigh Lundin wrote the operating system interface and transcript recorder.

Fx

DOCS required a dedicated partition. With DOS having only three partitions and DOS/VS seven, giving up a partition to DOCS placed a crimp in practicability. Leigh Lundin designed Fx, a pseudo-partition that relieved the user from relinquishing a working partition. Fx appeared in the DOS/VS version of SDI's Grasp as F0.

Marketing

DOCS was sold in North America by CFS, Inc, Brookline, Ma. For overseas sales, CFS engaged in both mail order and local vendors. The product was also embedded in third party operating system packages, such as EDOS and vDOS.

References

{{Mainframe I/O access methods Device drivers IBM mainframe software