Re: Basic structure COBOL


"CG" <Carl.Gehr.ButNoSPAMStuff@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Pete Dashwood wrote:
"CG" <Carl.Gehr.ButNoSPAMStuff@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Pete Dashwood wrote:
"CG" <Carl.Gehr.ButNoSPAMStuff@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Pete Dashwood wrote:
"Robin Lee" <robinlee@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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HeyBub wrote:
Get
Mull
Put
Actually I think that's PL1.


LOL! Nice one, Robin... :-)

It almost is...
Of course, it is PL/I [not PL1], but in a thread like this, I guess
close counts... [No comment on the rest.]
Carl
Why would you correct him on the name of the language, Carl?

It was originally PL/I as you state. IBM believed everyone would move
to it so, "Program Language/ International"

When this dream failed to eventuate, they renamed it as their first
attempt, and later manuals showed "PL/1".

(I have seen IBM manuals with each of these names on the cover,
depending on when they were published.)

We have never seen, and are now unlikely to, PL/2.
Why? Well, I guess, since the rest of the thread was certainly not
going to provide a serious response to the original question, the
quality of the thread was not going to be harmed by the comment. And,
if someone is going to criticize something, they should at least improve
their credibility by demonstrating that they know the correct name of
the product. I react the same way when I see 'Cobol' instead of 'COBOL'
in print.

I doubt you have ever seen an 'official' IBM publication that used PL/1
or PL1 or PLI.

Well there was one with a green cover and one with a red cover; they both
had a blue IBM logo on them...

Green covers were, if I recall correctly, normally "Student Text"
documents. Theoretically, they should have gone through the same edits,
but that was often done by instructors or others not in the development
groups. Regular SRLs were created by pub groups within the development
organization.

"Red Books" are more recent and usually written by field people versus
those from formal development organizations. Sometimes, there are also
users on the Red Book teams. While they go through an 'edit' process, the
person doing the editing is usually doing more of a grammatical edit than
a technical edit. The editor _should_ catch that kind of thing, but I
don't think they go through the kinds of text scanning looking for 'style
points' like regular SRL manuals.

However, it WAS a long time ago and I don't feel strongly enough about it
to insist... :-)


IBM is very careful about things like that, but humans being what they
are, and because IBM does not have a lawyer review every writing from
its employees, there are cases where errors slip through. When I have an
opportunity, I often suggest to those individuals that they should
correct their text.

And, FWIW, the 'I' was never for 'International' but simply a Roman
Numeral 'I'.

Yes, I know that is the official IBM position and I have heard this from
several IBM managers.

Obviously we have experienced history from different perspectives. :-)
It was while I was working for IBM at Hursley Park that I was told this
story, by someone who claimed to have been on the development team. Who
knows? It sounded plausible and I believed him.

I was on the IBM Pre-Announce Team for S/360. And, I struggled through a
number of the V1.0 beta releases of the PL/I(F) Compiler that just
happened to appear on my desk. [Does 'DTR' ring a bell with you?]
Somewhere in the basement, I may even have one of the early manuals that
said "New Programming Language" on the cover.

Since Hursley was where the original development of PL/I was done, it is
likely that you ran into some of the old PL/I group. But, the PL/I
mission was moved to Palo Alto and then to the Santa Teresa Lab. To keep
the Hursley group busy, they got CICS and [parts of] TCAM.

Carl

Thanks for the additional information, Carl. I knew about CICS at Hursley,
but not PL/I. I think what you are suggesting is very likely.
I worked at both North Harbour and Hursley and was a founder member of the
"IBM Software House" (which was mainly supporting the Huon solution), and
was also a driving force behind getting MicroFocus COBOL into use there,
until it was rebadged as Visual Age :-) Because I had some langiuage skills
I was sent to do trouble shooting with a couple of major IBM clients (who I
won't name publicly, but a bank and an insurance company, if you catch my
drift... :-)) in Germany, and that was the bit I enjoyed most during my time
there.

A different lifetime... now back to C# :-)...

Pete.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Basic structure COBOL
    ... IBM believed everyone would move to it so, ... When this dream failed to eventuate, they renamed it as their first attempt, and later manuals showed "PL/1". ... While they go through an 'edit' process, the person doing the editing is usually doing more of a grammatical edit than a technical edit. ... Since Hursley was where the original development of PL/I was done, it is likely that you ran into some of the old PL/I group. ...
    (comp.lang.cobol)
  • Re: COMPILER PERFORMANCE
    ... IBM did produce a statement to inform users how to write efficient code ... for the PL/I-F compiler. ... Fortran to S/360 PL/I. ... We even threatened to acquire a CDC machine and not even try to do further conversions to PL/I. ...
    (comp.lang.pl1)
  • Re: COMPILER PERFORMANCE
    ... IBM did produce a statement to inform users how to write efficient code ... That was before the compiler was released. ... Fortran to S/360 PL/I. ...
    (comp.lang.pl1)
  • Re: Put out to Pasture ?
    ... WalterR wrote: ... COBOL because IBM urged them to, explaining that PL/I demand is insufficient and that COBOL therefore will be the greater beneficiary of language/compiler development going forward. ...
    (comp.lang.pl1)
  • Re: "IBM PL/I for Windows" is a product
    ... Just to establish that I DO have something to do with PL/I and the status of PL/I within IBM -- AND so Robin will not continue to ruin his credibility and say that I have "nothing to do with PL/I" as he FALSELY MALIGNED Bill: ... Project Manager with the languages projects of IBM user groups ... PL/I for Windows can only be ordered as part of a larger ...
    (comp.lang.pl1)