DIAMAG(ID:396/dia009)interactive extension of ALGOLAn interactive extension of ALGOL. Related languages
References: in [AFIPS] Proceedings of the 1967 Spring Joint Computer Conference, April 18-20, Atlantic City, N. J. SJCC 30 view details in ACM Computing Reviews 8(06) November-December 1967 view details in ACM Computing Reviews 8(06) November-December 1967 view details The DIAMAG system is an on-line version of ALGOL which adds a number of language elements to permit communication with the timesharing system Extract: DIAMAG DIAMAG, which is an extension to ALGOL for on-line usage on the IBM 7044 with a satellite computer for the teletypes, has a fairly powerful set of control commands, considering that this is a dedicated system. It can be used in a desk calculator mode, a conversational mode, and a batch processing mode. The control language acts on a file which is a sequence of elements of the following four types: Bits, characters, machine words, and lines. The basic operations on the files are insertion, extraction, and concatenation, with commands for these and other operations, e.g., INSERT, EXTRACT, CONCAT, LIST, ERASE, COPY, STORE, DELETE, COMPILE, SAVECOMP, TRANSFORM, and INCLUDE. The concept whereby people enter jobs at a terminal but expect them to be executed at some future time, presumably in a batch environment or as background, is becoming increasingly important. The terms remote job entry (RJE) or foreground initiated background (FIB) are often used; regardless of the term, the user has entered information from a terminal but is not waiting for instantaneous response. in ACM Computing Reviews 8(06) November-December 1967 view details We might dwell for a moment on the DIAMAG team, which as far as we know was the first large (for the period) team to assemble researchers and engineers to run the Computer Center under the direction of Noel Gastinel, whose cooperativeness we must mention here as exemplary. The DIAMAG multiple-access systems were both built on the same model: a front-end processor for multiplexed user-machine communication, and a host system through which the central processor and interpreter are shared among active users. Users could carry out interactive editing, file management, batch, and interactive processing and execution on these facilities, and store the processed information separately on the second system. The first system, carried out in 1966 on a joint IBM 1401-IBM 7044, made an ALGOL 60 subsystem available to its two users. Designed under the direction of Bolliet, it was built by L. Marcel (who later became L. Siret), A. Auroux, J. Bellino, D. Clauzel, and J. P. Verjus, and used at IMAG until 1968. The second, designed and built between 1966 and 1968 on a joint PDP 8-IBM 7044, produced an entire ALGOL 60 subsystem, complete with the necessary extensions and facilities described above, for 32 users. This system, which was tested in the spring of 1968, operated for only a few months before the IBM 7044 was replaced with an IBM 360/67. It was designed and built by M. Bellot, J. P. Dupuy, L. Siret, Y. Siret, and J. P. Verjus. in Annals of the History of Computing 12(2) April 1990 IEEE view details |