waits

WAITS
 /wayts/, n.

   The mutant cousin of {TOPS-10} used on a handful of systems at {SAIL}
   up to 1990. There was never an `official' expansion of WAITS (the name
   itself having been arrived at by a rather sideways process), but it
   was frequently glossed as `West-coast Alternative to ITS'. Though
   WAITS was less visible than ITS, there was frequent exchange of people
   and ideas between the two communities, and innovations pioneered at
   WAITS exerted enormous indirect influence. The early screen modes of
   {EMACS}, for example, were directly inspired by WAITS's `E' editor --
   one of a family of editors that were the first to do `real-time
   editing', in which the editing commands were invisible and where one
   typed text at the point of insertion/overwriting. The modern style of
   multi-region windowing is said to have originated there, and WAITS
   alumni at XEROX PARC and elsewhere played major roles in the
   developments that led to the XEROX Star, the Macintosh, and the Sun
   workstations. Also invented there were {bucky bits} -- thus, the ALT
   key on every IBM PC is a WAITS legacy. One WAITS feature very notable
   in pre-Web days was a news-wire interface that allowed WAITS hackers
   to read, store, and filter AP and UPI dispatches from their terminals;
   the system also featured a still-unusual level of support for what is
   now called multimedia computing, allowing analog audio and video
   signals to be switched to programming terminals.
    

WAITS

   /wayts/ The mutant cousin of {TOPS-10} used on a handful of
   systems at {SAIL} up to 1990.  There was never an "official"
   expansion of WAITS (the name itself having been arrived at by
   a rather sideways process), but it was frequently glossed as
   "West-coast Alternative to ITS".  Though WAITS was less
   visible than ITS, there was frequent exchange of people and
   ideas between the two communities, and innovations pioneered
   at WAITS exerted enormous indirect influence.  The early
   screen modes of {Emacs}, for example, were directly inspired
   by WAITS's "E" editor - one of a family of editors that were
   the first to do "real-time editing", in which the editing
   commands were invisible and where one typed text at the point
   of insertion/overwriting.  The modern style of multi-region
   windowing is said to have originated there, and WAITS alumni
   at XEROX PARC and elsewhere played major roles in the
   developments that led to the XEROX Star, the Macintosh, and
   the Sun workstations.  {Bucky bits} were also invented there
   thus, the ALT key on every IBM PC is a WAITS legacy.  One
   notable WAITS feature seldom duplicated elsewhere was a
   news-wire interface that allowed WAITS hackers to read, store,
   and filter AP and UPI dispatches from their terminals; the
   system also featured a still-unusual level of support for what
   is now called "multimedia" computing, allowing analog audio
   and video signals to be switched to programming terminals.

   Ken Shoemake adds:

   Some administrative body told us we needed a name for the
   operating system, and that "SAIL" wouldn't do.  (Up to that
   point I don't think it had an official name.)  So the anarchic
   denizens of the lab proposed names and voted on them.
   Although I worked on the OS used by CCRMA folks (a parasitic
   subgroup), I was not writing WAITS code.  Those who were,
   proposed "SAINTS", for (I think) Stanford AI New Time-sharing
   System.  Thinking of ITS, and AI, and the result of many
   people using one machine, I proposed the name WAITS.  Since I
   invented it, I can tell you without fear of contradiction that
   it had no official meaning.  Nevertheless, the lab voted that
   as their favorite; upon which the disgruntled system
   programmers declared it the "Worst Acronym Invented for a
   Time-sharing System"!  But it was in keeping with the creative
   approach to acronyms extant at the time, including
   self-referential ones.  For me it was fun, if a little
   unsettling, to have an "acronym" that wasn't.  I have no idea
   what the voters thought. :)

   [{Jargon File}]

   (2003-11-17)
    

WAITS
       Westcoast Alternative to ITS