Population Control
by Bruce Taylor

Having read with increasing interest the initial issues of this newsletter, the question arose: "How many of the readers know who and where the denizens of this obscure but fascinating world to which ACP·TPF Today addresses itself actually are?"

As we all know, the world is flat and is bordered on the east by Long Island, on the west by Honolulu, on the north by Winnipeg, and on the south by Mexico City. Beyond those borders lies anarchy, chaos, socialism, oil, taxation, Suzukis, and all the other evils of an alien world. However, despite its obvious deficiencies, this alien world not only contributes to the readership of this newsletter, but also represents more than half of all the installations, though not half of the total human population looking after them.

Joking aside, how many have a good feel for the number, size and location of all the installations in our far-flung community? For many years we have maintained a spreadsheet with everything we came up against in our world, and thought we would share some of it with you. First of all, some definitions:

• The community we define as all systems with ACP/TPF type API for developing and running application systems. This includes ACP, TPF, ALCS (both DOS/VSE and MVS/XA or /ESA versions) and CPARS (yes, there are still a number of those around).
  
• An installation we define as a company operating such a system in a given location. Eg. AMR in Tulsa counts as one, even though the complex consists of the SABRE, FOS, and SAS systems, but CONFIRM in Dallas is a separate one; AMEXCO in Phoenix counts as one and its subsidiary clone in Brighten, England counts as a separate one. To IBM, the ultimate creator of all things wonderful, we attribute one in Danbury (TPF) and one in London, England (ALCS).
  
• Installations currently in the process of converting from ACP/TPF or CPARS to ALCS (the reverse has never occurred to our knowledge) we count in the group they are going to.

Given the above, we deduce the following:

1. There are about 97 installations in the world, of which 62 are ACP/TPF, 28 are ALCS, and 7 are CPARS.
   
2. There are about 38 installations in the U.S., 19 in Europe, 6 in the Middle East, 18 in the Far East (including Australasia), 5 in Africa, and 11 in South America.
   
3. There are about 6000 applications programmers and 1500 systems programmers active at these installations.
   
4. IBM is receiving revenue on about 200 TPF licences and about 50 ALCS licences (assuming that all customers who have them actually pay.)

If there is anyone who disputes any of these numbers, or who can add any information to what we have, please contact us. We have been as careful as we can in verifying our information, but errors are always possible.

Be careful of the words you say. Be sure they're soft and sweet. You'll never know from day to day, Which ones you'll have to eat!

However, as you can see, there are colleagues and opportunities spread throughout the world for those interested in experiencing alien cultures and exotic locations. Of course, not all locations are as exotic as Bangkok or Rio, but most have their attractions in one way or another.

Bruce Taylor is General Manager of HYPERION WWA, AMSTERDAM (Netherlands, Europe that is, i.e. east of Long Island).