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Overview

H1OS is oriented to batch processing and tapes. It employs multiprogramming to allow up to 16 processes to run at the same (scheduled) time. It does not implement the notion of "user": the "Monitor" (command interpreter) is intended to a professional operator and employs a dedicated terminal for it. Applications are not supposed to be interactive but the OS does not prevent the programmer from doing so in which case a separate terminal will be required for that purpose.

H1OS does not implement protected mode either as the Heritage/1 minicomputer does not offer support for that. Different processes are given separate stacks but those share the same physical (64K) address space. Preemptive scheduling does its best for isolating misbehaving processes but nothing can prevent a buggy program from corrupting other's processes code or data or even those for the Operating System itself.

System configuration relies heavily on the operator who will need to setup applications before they run. The setup of a particular program includes manual assignment of resources such as tape drives, printers and terminals. Loading/Unloading of Run-Time Libraries, as well as other OS-related task are also under the Operator's control. Most of this work, however, can be automated by the use of configuration files residing on tape.

If non of this sounds too much inviting... welcome to the Heritage/1 world!