Re: COBOL and tricks

From	Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Newsgroups	alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.linux.misc
Subject	Re: COBOL and tricks
Date	2022-08-19 17:59 -1000
Organization	Wheeler&Wheeler
Message-ID	<87edxbo99a.fsf@localhost> (permalink)
References	<871quvs7m8.fsf@usenet.ankman.de> <slrntdp29d.2mlb.trepidation@vps.jonz.net> <RtWdnZtP-K-6REH_nZ2dnUU7-RvNnZ2d@earthlink.com> <tdpfmo$1p5h2$1@dont-email.me> <tdpjth$m8o$1@gal.iecc.com>

Cross-posted to 2 groups.

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John Levine <johnl@taugh.com> writes:
> It didn't look like a merge of them, that's what it was, since its
> goal was to be a language to replace Fortran and COBOL on IBM
> mainframes.

Some of the MIT/7094 CTSS people
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatible_Time-Sharing_System
went to the 5th flr, project mac, and MULTICS.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multics
... folklore is some of the Bell Mutlics people then did UNIX as
simplified Multics

Others went to the 4th flr, IBM Cambridge Science Center, did virtual
machine CP40/CMS (on 360/40 with hardware mods for virtual memory,
morphs into CP67/CMS when 360/67 standard with virtual memory becomes
available, precursor to vm370), online and performance apps, CTSS RUNOFF
redid for CMS as SCRIPT, GML invented at science center in 1969 (and GML
tag processing added to SCRIPT, a decade later GML morphs into ISO SGML
and after another decade morphs into HTML at CERN), networking, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/CMS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversational_Monitor_System
some more CP67/CMS and VM370/CMS history
http://www.leeandmelindavarian.com/Melinda#VMHist

5flr implemened Multics in PL/1
https://multicians.org/pl1.html
http://teampli.net/plisprg.html
https://multicians.org/pl1-raf.html

wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PL/I
multics pl/i and derivatives
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PL/I#Multics_PL/I_and_derivatives

Compilers were implemented by several groups in the early 1960s. The
Multics project at MIT, one of the first to develop an operating system
in a high-level language, used Early PL/I (EPL), a subset dialect of
PL/I, as their implementation language in 1964. EPL was developed at
Bell Labs and MIT by Douglas McIlroy, Robert Morris, and others. The
influential Multics PL/I compiler[27] was the source of compiler
technology used by a number of manufacturers and software groups. EPL
was a system programming language and a dialect of PL/I that had some
capabilities absent in the original PL/I.

PL/I goals and principles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PL/I#Goals_and_principles

other tivia: Jean Sammet (FORMAC and COBOL)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_E._Sammet
was in the IBM Boston Programming Center on the 3rd flr ... after the
decision to make all 370s virtual memory and do VM/370, some of the
people split off from the science center (on the 4th flr) and took over
the Boston Programming Center on the 3rd flr (when they outgrew the 3rd
floor, they moved out to the empty IBM SBC bldg in burlington mall).

-- 
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

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Re: COBOL and tricks Alan Bowler <atbowler@thinkage.ca> - 2022-08-19 22:08 -0400
  Re: COBOL and tricks John Levine <johnl@taugh.com> - 2022-08-20 03:20 +0000
    Re: COBOL and tricks Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2022-08-19 17:59 -1000
      Re: COBOL and tricks Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2022-08-20 11:48 -1000

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