JOSS: Console Service Routines (The Distributor)
Irwin D. Greenwald · RAND Corporation eBooks · 1966
A description of the function of the JOSS distributor, which handles all input and output from the user stations and teletypes. A major design criterion was to prevent "stare-down," a condition in which the computer and a console may be waiting for each other. The distributor makes certain that each console is in the appropriate state, transmits and encodes all input and output, keeps all lines within allowed lengths, ensures that characters are not lost during carriage returns and page changes, and sees that upper or lower case is printed according to the user's typewriter shift. When the console is turned off, the distributor disables the station while the monitor "tidies up," and then enables it for the next user. An Appendix contains program documentation, consisting of a Station Control Register table and the nine console service routines.