IBM Distributed Office Support System, or DISOSS is a centralized document distribution and filing application for IBM's

mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...

s running the

MVS Multiple Virtual Storage, more commonly called MVS, was the most commonly used operating system on the System/370 and System/390 IBM mainframe computers. IBM developed MVS, along with OS/VS1 and SVS, as a successor to OS/360. It is unrelated ...

and VSE operating systems. DISOSS runs under both the CICS

transaction processing system Transaction processing is a way of computing that divides work into individual, indivisible operations, called transactions. A transaction processing system (TPS) is a software system, or software/ hardware combination, that supports transaction ...

and the IMS/DS transaction processing system, and later versions use the SNADS architecture of peer to peer communication for distributed services. Heterogeneous office systems connect through DISOSS to OfficeVision/MVS series. The IBM systems are OV/MVS, “OV/VM, OV/400, PS/CICS, PS/TSO, PS/PC, PROFS, and other Mail Systems Supporting SNADS and DIA. Only a single copy of DISOSS needs to be installed somewhere in the network to accomplish the connection.” A number of other vendors such as

Digital Equipment Corporation Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president unt ...

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

, and Data General provided links to DISOSS.

Functions

DISOSS provides document library function with search and retrieval controlled by security based on user ID, along with document translation based on Document Interchange Architecture (DIA) and Document Content Architecture (DCA). The different systems that use DISOSS for document exchange and distribution vary in their implementation of DCA and thus the end results of some combinations are only final form (FFT) documents rather than revisable form text (RFT). It supports document exchange between various IBM and non-IBM office devices including the

IBM Displaywriter System The IBM 6580 Displaywriter System is a 16-bit microcomputer that was marketed and sold by IBM's Office Products Division primarily as a word processor. Announced in June 1980 and effectively withdrawn from marketing in July 1986, the system was s ...

, the

IBM 5520 The IBM 5520 ''Administrative System'' was a text, electronic document‐distribution and data processing system, announced by IBM General Systems Division (GSD) in 1979. Configuration The system offered linked text-editing work stations that sha ...

, the IBM 8100/DOSF, IBM Scanmaster, and

Personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

s and word processors. It offers format transformation and printing services, and provides a rich

application programming interface An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how t ...

(API) and interfaced with other office products such as

IBM OfficeVision OfficeVision was an IBM proprietary office support application. History PROFS, DISOSS and Office/36 OfficeVision started as a product for the VM operating system named PROFS (for PRofessional OFfice System) and was initially made available in ...

History

DISOSS was announced in 1980, and "was designated a strategic IBM product in 1982." It was a key part of IBM Systems Application Architecture (SAA), but suffered from a reputation as "difficult to understand" and "a resource hog." DISOSS continues to be actively marketed and supported as of 2012. Version 1 of DISOSS was introduced in June 1980;

Colgate-Palmolive Colgate-Palmolive Company is an American multinational consumer products company headquartered on Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company specializes in the production, distribution, and provision of household, health car ...

was one of the first sites to implement DISOSS version 1, and reported dissatisfaction with the poor quality of the documentation and with software bugs. IBM released version 2 in 1982, in which IBM claimed to resolve the issues which version 1 users had experienced. DISOSS was implemented by the city government of

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

during 1983–1984.

References

IBM Corporation: Document Interchange with DISOSS Version 3 (1983)

External links

DISOSS/370 V3 CONCEPTS MVS VSE (GC30-3434-00)

DISOSS IBM Distributed Office Support System, or DISOSS is a centralized document distribution and filing application for IBM's mainframe computers running the MVS and VSE operating systems. DISOSS runs under both the CICS transaction processing syste ...

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Functions

History

See also

References

External links