[ih] Instant messaging, was We can hang up now, it's all done.

[Alan J Maitland]

I had access to an HP2000F (an HP1000 with Time Shared Basic) in high 
school (around the mid 1970s) via a 10 baud teletype (not quite 
Internet ready, but I'll always remember paper tape dot fights with 
fondness).  I seem to recall a TELL or TELLOP style command on that system.

Also, the NYU physics department HP3000CX (first released circa 1972 
or 1974 depending on which release you would count) certainly did 
have both TELL (session to session messaging) and TELLOP (session to 
operator messaging) commands in 1978, though I think that was part of 
the MPE FOS from its earliest days.

Although the HP3000 gravitated to a more commercial focus over time 
(HPMail, then HPDesk - email messaging as well as other accounting 
and manufacturing apps), it did have some interesting scientific 
applications which trace back to the 1970s.  One of those which comes 
to mind (specialized imaging software) ended up also getting ported 
over to the DEC VAX, though it continued to be offered and supported 
on both platforms.

I really enjoy this list because it triggers so many fond 
memories.  I think it just remarkable how far things have come during 
the past 35 years or so.

Best,

Alan

At 10:34 AM 11/23/2009, John Levine wrote:
> >The first instance of this type of capability in a commercial system
> >appears to be IBM's CP/67 Release 3 (approximately November 1970) in
> >the CP "MSG" command.
>
>When I was in high school I was able to use the dial-in time-sharing
>service from Applied Logic, a local service bureau that ran first on a
>PDP-6 and later PDP-10 in Princeton NJ, using heavily modified
>versions of DEC's operating system later known as TOPS-10.
>
>They had a TALK command at least as early as 1968 that let you type
>from one terminal to another, which would be a candidate for first
>commercial offering.  I recall using it to ask the operator to set
>aside printouts so I could bike over after school and pick them up.
>
>R's,
>John