Operating Environment
The MCP also provides a sophisticated yet simple operator environment. For large installations, many operators might be required to make physical resources, such as printers (loading paper, toner cartridges, etc.) available. Low-end environments for small offices or single user may require an operator-free environment (especially the laptop implementation).
Large systems have dedicated operations terminals called ODTs (Operator Display Terminals), usually kept in a secure environment. For small systems, machines can be controlled from any terminal (provided the terminal and user have sufficient privileges) using the MARC program (Menu Assisted Resource Control). Operator commands can also be used by users familiar with them.
Operator commands are mostly two letters (as with Unix), and some are just one letter. This means that the operator interface must be learned, but it is very efficient for experienced operators who run a large mainframe system from day to day. Commands are case insensitive.
Tasks are entered in the program 'mix' and identified by mix numbers, as are libraries. To execute a program, operators can use the 'EX' or 'RUN' command followed by the file name of the program. ODTs are run typically with ADM (Automatic Display Mode), which is a tailorable display of system status usually set up to display the active, waiting, and completed mix entries, as well as system messages to the operator for notifications or situations requiring operator action.
Complete listing of these displays are given by the 'A' (active), 'W' (waiting), 'C' (completed), and 'MSG' (message commands).
If a task becomes waiting on some operator action, the operator can find out what the task needs by entering its mix number followed by the 'Y' command. (Note the object-oriented style of commands, selecting the object first, followed by the command.) For example, '3456Y'.
An operator can force a task into the waiting entries with the stop command '3456ST' and make it active again with OK: '3456OK'. The OK command can also be used when an operator has made a resource available for a task, although more frequently than not, the MCP will detect that resources have become available, CAUSE the EVENT that processes have been waiting on without further operator intervention. To pass textual information from an operator to a program, the accept command ‘3456AX MORE INFO’ can be used. Programs can pass information to operators using the DISPLAY mechanism, which causes DISPLAY messages to be added to the MSG display.
As well as tasks and processes, operators also have control over files. Files can be listed using the FILE command, copied using COPY, removed using REMOVE, and renamed.
The operating environment of the MCP is powerful, yet simple and usually only requires a fraction of the number of operators of other systems.
An important part of the operations environment is the high-level Work Flow Language
Read more about this topic: Burroughs MCP
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