
Pick operating system - andyjohnson0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pick_operating_system
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Fwirt
I work with a Pick derivative every day. UniData still runs many higher ed ERP
systems. (As it does at our institution, which was the first installation of
our particular product.) I sometimes joke that we were running a NoSQL DB
before SQL existed! ;)

I can't comment directly on Pick, but UniData is an... interesting DB. The
concept of MultiValue fields is both powerful and horrifying (reporting is a
nightmare for anything designed to deal with SQL DBs). The configuration
varies between installs, but for the most part all data is treated as ASCII
text. Numeric values are converted at runtime. Dates are stored as number of
days since December 31st, 1967. (You read that right.) There are no real
checks on field length or content. Also, for the most part we program in a
basic variant (UniBasic) where the only dynamic programming feature is
"dynamic arrays" which are strings with special delimiter characters.
"Structured programming" is still mentioned as a novel concept in the manuals.
However, there is a vendor "augmented" version of UniBasic that interfaces
with our software product's frontend in various ways. It's a niche ecosystem.

My manager still remembers the good old days back in the '80s when our ERP
system ran on a Prime minicomputer. I still have some manuals sitting around
my office with "Prime" printed on the spine...

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andyjohnson0
Thanks for sharing that. I'm curious about whether you work with other, more
mainstream technologies too alongside Pick, and what the interoperability is
like?

Despite the limited features you alluded to, I think I would quite enjoy a
platform that isn't constantly mutating in response to fashions and (I assume)
lets you get on with the job.

