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CONCEPT

IDES

Type: concept
Alias: IDES, IDES, Interactive Data Exchange System

  • IDES

  • IDES (Interactive Data Exchange System) was a custom multi-user real-time chat and store-and-forward electronic mail system authored by Randal Schwartz in HP 2000 BASIC while attending high school in Colton, Oregon in the mid-1970s.
  • Running on a centralized time-shared minicomputer accessed via leased data lines, IDES allowed students at Colton High School to chat interactively and exchange persistent messages with friends 26 miles away in Gladstone.
  • Randal's friends playfully coined the acronym IDES specifically to unleash the Shakespearean pun:
    • "Beware the Ides of Schwartz!"
  • The system rapidly went viral across all 15 connected regional high schools before being shut down by school district administrators (though preserved on paper tape). It also led directly to Randal's first commercial coding job for Superior Software Services.
  • See Inventing Chat and Email Across a Leased Line in High School and IDES Viral Spread and the TOTO Text Editor Gig.

What links here

🔗 Childhood Friendship with Kevin Hornych and Playing Hooky in the Woods 🔗 Gladstone and Colton School Days 🔗 IDES Viral Spread and the TOTO Text Editor Gig 🔗 Inventing Chat and Email Across a Leased Line in High School 🔗Jonathan Kirwan 🔗Kevin Hornych 🔗 Under the Hood of IDES and the 5-Level Security System
These facts are as Randal recalls them, but much time has passed for most of this. If you find a factual error, please email realmerlyn@gmail.com.