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From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: The joy of FORTRAN
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2025 14:03:51 -1000
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scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) writes:
> COBOL, in its day, was the superior choice for business
> applications.   Several 4GL environments were built around
> COBOL or autogenerated COBOL applications.

In the 60s, that were a couple CP67/CMS commercial spin-offs of the
science center. One was NCSS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_CSS
later bought by Dun & Bradstreet

NCSS ref also mentions NOMAD (4th gen software)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomad_software
predates the original SQL/relational System/R done on VM370 system at
san jose research

http://www.decosta.com/Nomad/tales/history.html
One could say PRINT ACROSS MONTH SUM SALES BY DIVISION and receive a
report that would have taken many hundreds of lines of Cobol to
produce. The product grew in capability and in revenue, both to NCSS and
to Mathematica, who enjoyed increasing royalty payments from the sizable
customer base.  FOCUS from Information Builders, Inc (IBI), did even
better, with revenue approaching a reported $150M per year. RAMIS moved
among several owners, ending at Computer Associates in 1990, and has had
little limelight since. NOMAD's owners, Thomson, continue to market the
language from Aonix, Inc. While the three continue to deliver 10-to-1
coding improvements over the 3GL alternatives of Fortran, Cobol, or
PL/1, the movements to object orientation and outsourcing have stagnated
acceptance.

other history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramis_software
When Mathematica (also) makes Ramis available to TYMSHARE for their
VM370/CMS-based commercial online service, NCSS does their own version
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomad_software
and then follow-on FOCUS from IBI
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOCUS
Information Builders's FOCUS product began as an alternate product to
Mathematica's RAMIS, the first Fourth-generation programming language
(4GL). Key developers/programmers of RAMIS, some stayed with Mathematica
others left to form the company that became Information Builders, known
for its FOCUS product

4th gen programming language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth-generation_programming_language

from another CP67/CMS spinoff in the 60s ... this mentions "first
financial language" at IDC
https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102658182
as an aside, a decade later, person doing FFL joins with another to form
startup and does the original spreadsheet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VisiCalc

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