Comment Re:Nothing new (Score 1) 953
Most of this stuff should be done with PLCs and/or microcontrollers. The reason they use PCs is just because "let's use a PC for everything". It was easier for THEM to use a PC and hire cheap fresh-out-of-college hackers than to engineer a competent, embedded system to a higher standard. And it worked, because we (industry) bought it.
I used to work for Papa Johns, back before I was into computers at all. They call their homegrown system the "Profit System" and based on what I remember and now know, it uses a Unix box in the office of every store. All the terminals out by the phones are honest-to-God dumb terminals running off serial connections. The user interfaces are TUI, blazingly responsive, and extremely fast to use once you memorize the zillions of shortcut combos...no keyboard of food icons...but all they need is cheap hardware, normal keyboards, and they can run a whole store (internet orders, inventory, everything) off of a slow modem with no problem.
I used to work for Papa Johns, back before I was into computers at all. They call their homegrown system the "Profit System" and based on what I remember and now know, it uses a Unix box in the office of every store. All the terminals out by the phones are honest-to-God dumb terminals running off serial connections. The user interfaces are TUI, blazingly responsive, and extremely fast to use once you memorize the zillions of shortcut combos...no keyboard of food icons...but all they need is cheap hardware, normal keyboards, and they can run a whole store (internet orders, inventory, everything) off of a slow modem with no problem.