Old IBM mainframe users--please help!

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My client is telling me that I'm nuts.

But ca. 1988, I recall working on an already ancient 3270 terminal that would make a "whunking" sound/feel from the keyboard if I tried to input into a protected field (or invalid screen area), as though a solenoid were being actuated momentarily for the sole purpose of providing tactile feedback of the error condition, possibly for use in loud environments where operators might have to wear earplugs (e.g., a factory floor) and not be able to hear usual audible indications.

The "whunk" would occur on every keystroke thereafter until the block-mode error condition was cleared.

He says he never encountered this on any 3278 he ever worked on.

Now I know I didn't imagine this, but I can't find anything conclusive RE this via web searches. I can't be *that* old!

Help!

I can recall an OS6-442 in 1980 shutting itself down after I had been on it too long and sending me of to bed, but it only ever had a simple beep for entry errors.

The terminals we had on the Amdahl 3890 at SAC HQ back in the Eighties did something like that, where a more modern terminal would beep. (When we first got PCs into the office, it took most of the personnel a while to get used to the beeping instead of the *clunk*.)

On the other hand, just because this actually happened doesn't necessarily mean you're not nuts...

Oooh, how very remarkably rude!

You know, they call Alabama, er, Dixie, or something...

Yes, I can remember something similar. There was a thing called BMS (Basic Mapping Support) with which one could map screen areas to input fields.

I remember getting a slight tactile sensation on what was basically a ZX81 clone (but looked more like an early ZX spectrum) if I remember correctly. The reason was simple though. The built-in speaker was mounted right underneath the keys and the error sound was a pretty loud multitone (short high, like a tap, then long buzzing low) beep. It's still crystal clear in my head so many years later

That's called a "bonk". Kind of the computer's way of saying: "no you can't do that."

In JCL it's called something like "null character echo" where a null character is echoed from the computer. There was a DIP switch in the terminal to disable the bonk.

It's been decades since I messed with IBM mainframes.