[ih] Stanford AI Labs vending machine Prancing Pony Cooperative Point-of-sale Terminal

[the keyboard of geoff goodfellow]

EXCERPTing from
1975-10-19 10:34  PONYSY.SAI [PNY,SYS] at https://saildart.org/[PNY,SYS]/
"
      Prancing Pony Cooperative
    Point-of-sale Terminal

If you are a "local" user of our system you may charge food on this
terminal.  Example: if your programmer initials are "LEO" and you
want to buy a cup of coffee, type
  LEO C<return>

COFFEE POOL: Normally the Pony will ask you once a month if you want
to join the coffee pool ($3/month).  If you say "Y" it will bill you
accordingly.  If you type something else, it will wait till next
month, unless you type precisely "NO, NO, 1000*NO", in which case it
will never ask you again.  Even if you choose to charge by the cup,
you will not be billed for more than $3 each month for coffee and
tea.

LUCKY WINNER FEATURE:  Occasionally, the program will decide that you
are such a good customer that it will give you the food free.  It will
inform you of this decision with suitable bell-ringing.

GAMBLER MODE: If you type an "F", the Pony flips you for it, double
or nothing, and announces the outcome (50:50 chance -- honest!).  The
Pony declines to play for negative entries or for cash ("M" code, see
below).

For example, to buy two bagels, a donut, a 20 cent vending machine
item, a 35 cent vending machine item, mild indigestion, and flip for
double or nothing, type
  LEO BBD V20 V35 F
In this case, it will open the 20 cent door first and wait for you to
hit <return> again before it opens the .35 door and tells you whether
you won or lost.

The complete list of item codes is:
B - Bagels
C - Coffee or tea
D - Donuts
M - Money (stealing from the change box)
S - Snacks (munches, soup, hot chocolate, etc.)
V - Vending machine

F - Flip for it, double or nothing
G - to enter Gripes, compliments, remarks
I - Itemize your charges day-by-day.
P - change your Password
T - show your Total changes for the month

The B, C, and D codes can be used without a number following, since
their prices are known to the machine.  For the V, S, and M codes the
amount must be specified.  You can also "uncharge" by specifying a
negative value.  For example,
  LEO -CCC M-25 V-35
credits your account for three cups of coffee, 25 cents in cash, and a
35 cent vending machine purchase, and arouses the suspicions of the
accountants.

BILLS: If you would like to know about charges for earlier months,
use the "T" (for "total") or "I" (for "itemize") commands followed by
":" and 3 or more letters of the month name, optionally followed by
"." and the last two digits of the year.  Thus if LEO were interested
in totals for the preceding July and August and itemized charges for
September 1974, he would type
  LEO T:JUL T:AUG I:SEP.74

RANDOM INFORMATION: If you would like to know how much has been given
away by the LUCKY WINNER FEATURE, type "SYS T" or "SYS I".  To find
out the house net on DOUBLE OR NOTHING this month, type "F T" or "F I".
A positive total means the house is losing.  Each of these commands
also lists gross sales for the month.

Bon appetit!"


-- 
Geoff.Goodfellow at iconia.com
living as The Truth is True