IBM System/34 and System/36 Screen Design Aid - Coding For The Audience

Coding For The Audience

When the IBM System/34 was sold, a common monitor would be a monochrome 12-inch IBM 5251; in the System/36 heyday, a common monitor would be the 12-inch IBM 5291 or the color 14-inch IBM 3486. Later in the S/36 life, third parties began to rise in popularity with such names as IIS, Decision Data, and Emerald. Not only do the third-party monitors cost much less, they offer multiple session capability, programmable color palettes, larger display areas, and a direct PC printer port which allows S/36 users to access inexpensive inkjet printers without a separate adapter. This is one reason why programming the S/36 has become more interesting over the years - the "blue" or "red" field one codes may not appear blue or red on all audience equipment.

All S/34 and S/36 display stations use 5250 protocol; S/34 allows either 960-character displays or 1920-character displays; S/36 allows either 1920-character displays or (rare) 3564-character displays.

Code two different display formats if it is possible that your audience might use the IBM 5252 Dual Display, which requires 960-character displays. Consider whether your audience will be using color or monochrome displays - an application developed for color-only might not function well on a monochrome display.

Read more about this topic:  IBM System/34 And System/36 Screen Design Aid

Famous quotes containing the word audience:

    The audience is the most revered member of the theater. Without an audience there is no theater. Every technique learned by the actor, every curtain, every flat on the stage, every careful analysis by the director, every coordinated scene, is for the enjoyment of the audience. They are our guests, our evaluators, and the last spoke in the wheel which can then begin to roll. They make the performance meaningful.
    Viola Spolin (b. 1911)