We usually at least recognize old computer hardware and software names. But [Asianmoetry] taught us a new one: Pick OS. This 1960s-era system was sort of a database and sort of an operating system for big iron used by the Army. The request was for an English-like query language, and TRW assigned two guys, Don Nelson and Dick Pick, to the job.
The planned query language would allow for things like “list the title, author, and abstract of every transportation system reference with the principal city ‘Los Angeles’.” This was GIM or generalized information management, and, in a forward-looking choice, it ran in a virtual machine.
TRW made one delivery of GIM, but the program that funded it was in trouble. Since TRW didn’t protect GIM, Dick took his program and formed a business. That business sold the rights to the software to Microdata, a minicomputer company, which used it under the name ENGLISH.
After a lawsuit with Microdata, Pick was able to keep his software, but Microdata retained its rights. Pick dabbled in making hardware, but decided to sell that part of the enterprise and focus on licensing Pick OS.
The first sale was to Honeywell. The virtual machine concept made it easy to port to new machines. Pick had a very IBM-like structured file system, where all data is a string, and dictionaries organize the underlying data.
In addition to a database, there was a programming language like BASIC, a text editor, and even a spreadsheet program. Why haven’t we heard of it? Part of the problem is that the computers using it typically renamed it and didn’t say it was Pick under the hood.
In the early 1980s, Pick’s appearance on the PC and the ability to support ten users on a single PC were notable features. The resellers didn’t appreciate the thrust to sell directly to users, and more lawsuits emerged.
Pick also struggled to get a GUI going when that was taking off. After Dick died, the system sort of coasted through several acquisitions. There are echoes of it in OpenQM, and there’s at least one fork of that on GitHub.
It is amazing how a system can utilize something like this and then become locked in, even after things change. This explains why Japan still uses floppy disks for certain things.
We (my actual employer) used Pick until 10 years ago in production. It served as a database to manage 100.000 clients. It ran in a virtual machine on an IBM mainframe. One of my first job was to recycle the hundred of terminals still on premise. Those terminals were connected to the mainframe, and our employees used terminal emulators on Windows to access the handful of apps specifically designed for the task. It was dull but snappy considering the size of the database.
I used Pick decades ago when I was doing some work for … a large tyre company (no names, no pack drill). From (albeit fading) memory, Its record/field/sub-field separation strategy (using characters like the ASCII RS/FS/GS/US) was quite nice at the time and not as slow as you may think. Later on used a similar PC-based Advanced Revelation package.
My first ever job in 1993 was at an aluminium foundry that used Pick 4GL and 3GL (BASIC) running on a minicomputer with access via serial terminals around the site. That was the first and last time I saw anything that wasn’t a PC.
I had to restore a Pick database and application that a Peterbuilt dealership in Canada was running on an RS/6000 (running AIX) in the late 1990s. Their old RS/6000 was stolen (stolen!) and we drop-shipped a new one, which I set up and got their backups restored. Trickiest bit was getting the terminal multiplexer (an MCA (multi-channel architecture/adapter?) adapter that supported a cabled box that had a bunch of serial ports on it) working and all the terminals and printers redefined correctly in AIX and then in the Pick system/application. The dealership was writing stuff on paper for the weekend while I got it going.
I still do maintenance on a PICK system, though it’s little more than patching the host OS, and contacting vendor support if things fail to boot back up cleanly.
The virtual machine runs on a pretty modern Linux OS, and users connect to it with telnet. It’s not clear to me if PICK is running natively on Linux, or if there’s some kind of minicomputer emulator stuffed in there too.
This year the system is finally being retired and replaced with a modern web app, but it’s amazing how well it’s been extended with fancy terminal emulator tricks, connections to SMB shares, and passing jobs to modern printers.
My dad (Bill Meyer) was a PICK programmer. He programed a database for DOD transportation. He could make a dumb terminal to some crazy stuff. If I recall, his name is in the credits of that book.
seriously? there were parents calling someone dick pick? little did they know…