Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 UW 5/3/83; site uw-beaver Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!cbosgd!ihnp4!drutx!houxe!hogpc!houti!ariel!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!info-mac From: info-mac@uw-beaver.UUCP Newsgroups: fa.info-mac Subject: Message-ID: <1903@uw-beaver> Date: Sat, 13-Oct-84 14:08:25 EDT Article-I.D.: uw-beave.1903 Posted: Sat Oct 13 14:08:25 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 16-Oct-84 05:28:54 EDT Sender: daemon@uw-beave Organization: U of Washington Computer Science Lines: 16 From: Dave FuchsLet's be historically accurate: The original meaning of "spool" was "simultaneous peripheral operation >> OFF << line." Files destined for a printer or card punch were written on magnetic tape. An operator would periodically dismount the spool tape from the CPU's tape drive and mount it on another drive that was connected directly to a printer or punch, and the spooled jobs would be run off. (That's what made the name "spool" so cute; you ended up with a spool of tape instead of your printout.) This great advance meant that CPU's >> that couldn't handle multi-tasking << were no longer mostly idle when printing. Only later, when mass disk storage became cheaper and such things as interrupts and context-switching were invented did "spool" take on the newer meaning. It's interesting to note that the Macintosh does seem to fulfill the requirements of the earlier definition but not the later. -david