So, I and several other programmers are assigned full-time to the development project. To be productive, management figured out we needed our own dedicated terminals, so we got them, and so did everyone else in the department over time.
A major long-term impact of this was that now we could move from semi-open floor space, where terminals could be shared, to full-on cubicle farms, and that's what happened. Its funny now, because lots of offices are trying to get back to open space, and being trapped in a cubicle is treated as torture, but we were all thrilled when we each got our own 3 and half walls. I think this has carried over into my choices in housing; open-concept and high-ceilings means wasted space. I want walls, doors, and each floor of my house to cover all the available space.
What else was going on about this time? We got internal, mainframe-based email. Up till then, we were still using triplicate memo forms to hand-write messages and send them by inter-office snail mail; can't say I missed that very much, but email was charged for internally for its use of external mainframe cycles, so some departments refused to use it because of that cost, and it usually turned out to my users; but the email worked well, just still text on a green screen and only within the company.
Around this time the company bought its first laser printer for the mainframe, producing excellent quality printing on standard letter and legal paper. What you would do is insert printer commands in your code to produce reports that looked good. We also started typing memos and documents in TSO PDS members, and you would add printer codes that specified font, bold/italics, spacing and more. I think this when my typing started to get faster because of constant use, although I have still never learned how to type like a typist would. (They didn't teach typing to boys in high-school back in the 70's, that was for girls, who also learned shorthand, so they could go right out there and be a secretary! I have to think shorthand really has to be a lost skill by now.)
But even with mainframe email and laser printers to dazzle us, lurking out there was that next great paradigm-shift: the IBM PC.
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