Path: ...!feeds.phibee-telecom.net!3.eu.feeder.erje.net!feeder.erje.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Lynn Wheeler Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: COBOL history, Article on new mainframe use Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2024 23:38:38 -1000 Organization: Wheeler&Wheeler Lines: 61 Message-ID: <87le0bzpb5.fsf@localhost> References: <5GkAO.84916$%Go3.29106@fx12.iad> <20240830183742.000065c5@yahoo.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Injection-Date: Sun, 01 Sep 2024 11:38:42 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="0c955057f11c7ff209d33979e04b555c"; logging-data="1531167"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+hQfWcUxdCYAQ/54ll4iwZo1nsMTHArVc=" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Cancel-Lock: sha1:/+n4Qi5YhMhDsvN2ScctfU75mus= sha1:G4tGHOKdy4Te/wcMgUJSF9a8kR4= Bytes: 4156 John Levine writes: > Um, if you spent ten seconds looking at the 1960 COBOL report, you > would have found IBM listed as one of the contributors, and it > specifically lists the IBM Commercial Translator as one of thte > sources for COBOL. Bob Bemer https://history.computer.org/pioneers/bemer.htm Bemer is the inventor of the words "Cobol," and "CODASYL," six ASCII characters, and the concepts of registry and escape sequences in character codes. He also invented the term and defined the nature of the "software factory." At IBM he developed the first load-and-go system (PRINT I) and also was responsible for the implementation of the programming system FORTRANSIT, which provided a quick first compiler for the IBM 650 computer, and was the first programming language to run both decimal (IBM 650) and binary (IBM 704) computers. For the support of commercial programming Bemer developed PRINT I; in the late 1950s he developed XTRAN, a step towards Algol, and "Commercial Translator," which became a significant input to Cobol. His major Cobol innovations were the IDENTIFICATION and ENVIRONMENT divisions, and the PICTURE clause. web bages gone 404, but lives on at wayback machine https://web.archive.org/web/20180402200149/http://www.bobbemer.com/HISTORY.HTM Bemer wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Bemer He served on the committee which amalgamated the design for his COMTRAN language with Grace Hopper's FLOW-MATIC and thus produced the specifications for COBOL. He also served, with Hugh McGregor Ross and others, on the separate committee which defined the ASCII character codeset in 1960, contributing several characters which were not formerly used by computers including the escape (ESC), backslash (\), and curly brackets ({}).[3] As a result, he is sometimes known as The Father of ASCII.[1] COMTRAN wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COMTRAN COMTRAN (COMmercial TRANslator) is an early programming language developed at IBM. It was intended as the business programming equivalent of the scientific programming language FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslator). It served as one of the forerunners to the COBOL language. Developed by Bob Bemer, in 1957, the language was the first to feature the programming language element known as a picture clause. COMTRAN manual https://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/7090/F28-8043_CommercialTranslatorGenInfMan_Ju60.pdf Bob Bemer papers https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8j96cf7/ He later played a key role in the development of the COBOL programming language, which drew on aspects of Bemer's COMTRAN programming language developed at IBM. Bemer is credited with the first public identification of the Y2K problem, publishing in 1971 his concern that the standard representation of the year in calendar dates within computer programs by the last two digits rather than the full four digits would cause serious errors in confusing the year 2000 with the year 1900. -- virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970