In my 37 years of working with IBM midrange, and especially IBM i and its predecessors, I learned something new that has blown my mind.
Spool as in "spool file" is an acronym!
I have always thought that "spool" was the queue of spool files on an output queue. A long list of spool files would be like piece of thread from a spool of thread. It turns out my assumption is wrong.
I have Alan Seiden to thank for bringing this to my attention.
It turns out the definition of a "spool" is:
spooling (Simultaneous Peripheral Operations OnLine)
The overlapping of low-speed operations with normal processing. Spooling originated with mainframes in order to optimize slow operations such as reading cards and printing. Card input was read onto disk and printer output was stored on disk. In that way, the business data processing was performed at high speed, receiving input from disk and sending output to disk. Subsequently, spooling is used to buffer data for the printer as well as remote batch terminals.
Taken from "Free dictionary by Farlex": here.
Well, this old dog has learned something new.
excelente
ReplyDeleteInteresting.
ReplyDeleteVery nice! Every little bit helps!
ReplyDeleteI have a similar number of years working on these platforms (IBM S/15 Model 5) was my first job as an operator and I never knew SPOOL was an acronym either.
ReplyDeletewow!!
ReplyDeleteDisk. Early computer systems put their prints on punch tape. Then a printer read the punch tape to make the print. I remember printers with punch tape readers, but with a cable from the computer too.
ReplyDeleteIs this an April Fool's Day joke ? hehe
ReplyDelete