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Introduction to the IBM Mainframe
User Interaction
On a PC or similar, primary User Interaction is via the keyboard, mouse and screen. With a mainframe the same is true,
except the mainframe itself does not recognise the concept of a mouse.
With mainframes User Interaction has developed from the typewriter type devices of the 1960s, through non-intelligent terminals, such as
the IBM 3270, to the PCs of today.
Most business users will be exploiting a 3270 Emulation Application on their PC, Laptop, Notebook or whatever, but IT professionals
now have specific PC-based client applications which interact with a server application on the mainframe.
See printing information.