MIIS preservation

Hello all..

A number of historical operating systems are now available for hobbyist-non-commerical use: TOPS-10 and TOPS-20, OpenVMS, RSTS-E, OS-VS2 (MVS), VM-370, several versions of BSD UNIX, and more... My question: where is MIIS!? This note is a plea for the preservation of MIIS for hobbyist study.

Meditech Interpretive Information System, or MIIS, was introduced in the late 70's to run on the Data General Eclipse line and, I believe, the PDP-11. Both of these architectures have been implemented as freely-available software emulators, thanks to Bob Supnik and others.

MIIS was a unique database language used in healthcare and library settings. It has been variously described as a dialect, version, precursor, or derivative of the MUMPS language. The MIIS implemetation I saw on the Eclipse ran in a dedicated operating environment. The MIIS filesystem provided for a self-balancing, hierarchical B-tree structure that obviated the use of sort routines. MIIS had powerful string-handling and tree-traversal functions. The MIIS operating environment supported multiple interactive users as well as batch modes of operation. The operator's console could run system watch, management, and log utilities.

MIIS appears to have been gradually abandoned or migrated over the years. Can YOU help make MIIS available for hobbyist study? This would involve the discovery and conversion of distribution media (likely 9-track tape), sample applications, documentation, and above all, suitable permission licensing from Meditech or the current MIIS stakeholders. Every year that pbuttes takes us further away from a computer history original.

Pbutt the word! Thank you!

-- Calvin Miracle University of Louisville Libraries cbmira01at-signgwise.louisville.edu