ISL(ID:5185/isl002)

Intermediate Systems Language 

for Intermediate Systems Language

BFGoodrich's partial port, partial enhacement systems-independant of G-WIZ

Used to write IDMS
Places
Related languages
G-WIZ => ISL   Port
ISL => IDS   Written in
References:
  • Karasz, Peter "The Origins of IDMS" (edited by Chris Hoelscher) Online postings view details Extract: Early Sixties
    Early Sixties
    In the EARLY 60's, B.F. Goodrich Chemical Corporation (BFGCC) acquired a GE-200 system in an attempt to automate more of its data processing functions. Systems were developed using GECOM, a COBOL like language of General Electric for the GE-200. The early compiler had a number of problems and some of the fellows at BFGCC had provided considerable insight in helping GE debug the software, and over time a good working relationship developed. When IDS became available, Dick Schubert (BFGCC IS staff) realized that this could be a powerful tool in developing on-line systems.

    IDS, Integrated Data Store, was designed by Charlie Bachman for General Electric to run on their GE-635 Mainframe under their GECOS operating system. IDS for the GE-200 was a primitive data base manager. It allowed a single file only for the database and had no tools for table generation so they had to be hand coded in assembler. Mistakes in coding the tables combined with bugs in the IDS code itself were a rich source of fatal errors that caused the system to crash, several times a day. BFGCC was not able to bring up a production system with GE's version of IDS due to its unreliability.

    Eventually, BFGCC offered to help debug the software if GE would have no objection. B.F. Goodrich bought the rights and converted it to run on the IBM family of mainframes and renamed it IDMS in the process.IDS for the GE-200 was written in the language of the General Assembly Program (GAP). This assembler had no DSECTS, no macros and no cross-reference. In addition, there were no EXTRN type addresses or a linkage editor to resolve them. The GE-200 had only a loader. IDS and its tables had to be assembled together to create the load module, which meant a big re-assembly taking about 30 minutes, each time you changed either IDS or the tables. Programs communicated with each other through fixed memory locations, assigned in advance and hard coded into the programs that were to use them. Jim Gilliam (of the IS staff) and his team cut the IDS assembly listing apart and studied it subroutine by subroutine until they gained an understanding of the logic used. They also realized that using second generation assembler for implementation of complex software was a loser's game. A new tool was needed.

    GE had a software implementation language called WIZOR. The GE FORTRAN II compiler was written in WIZOR as well as the WIZOR compiler itself. Which made WIZOR an easily modifiable language and a new enhanced dialect, G-WIZ, was soon born. Gilliam and others re-wrote IDS into G-WIZ and so created a dependable version. A copy of the new software was returned to GE as part of the agreement. BFGCC continued to work with its version of IDS and in 1969 it was modified to handle two database files. By this time, BFGCC was now running a (sort of) on-line (more correctly remote batch) order processing system in operation on a GE-265 configuration (GE235 CPU with Datanet-30 network controller) using their modified version of IDS for the GE-200 series machines.

    Extract: IDMS Name Makes Its Debut
    IDMS Name Makes Its Debut
    At this point, BFG instituted a corporate policy dictating that all BFG data centers will select IBM equipment (or else) when upgrading to third generation computers. Since there were no IDS type DBMSs available on IBM mainframes, BFGCC management, after a feasibility study, authorized the development of IDMS. BFGCC was a member of CODASYL and as such, had an advance copy of the CODASYL Data Base Task Group's (DBTG) April 1971 specifications. Also, Schubert, who represented BFGCC in CODASYL, was an active member of the DBTG and thoroughly knowledgeable regarding the proposed specifications. IDMS was developed using a subset of the DBTG's specifications.

    IDMS was designed and written at the Cleveland data center of The BFGCC. Most of the work took place from late 1969 to mid 1971. The project team consisted of five programmers under the management of Richard F. (Dick) Schubert. The programmers and their contributions were as follows: Vaughn Austin, IDMSCALC & IDMSINIT; Ken Cunningham, IDMSDMLC; Jim Gilliam, IDMSDBMS, IDMSIDMS, and the overall design of the IDMS system; Pete Karasz, IDMSDUMP, IDMSPFIX, IDMSRBCK, IDMSREST, IDMSRFWD, IDMSUBSC, and ISL language compiler; and Ron Phillips, IDMSCHEM.

    It is without doubt that the work with IDS gave us the confidence to tackle development of IDMS. It is important at this juncture to stop and point out the facts that the only IDS source ever seen by us was the earliest version for the GE-200 and that no code from IDS has survived into IDMS. We did, however, retain the concepts of file navigation based on tables and the owner-member record relationship. Multi-file databases (DMCL), areas, schemas (DDL) and subschemas are all CODASYL concepts implemented for the first time in IDMS. The IDD was our original contribution and it was not part of the DBTG's specifications until years later. IDS for the GE-200 had none of these features and for that reason alone it could not serve as the basis for IDMS. IDMS was all new design, all new code. Later versions of IDS for the GE-400 and GE-600 series machines were CODASYL compliant implementations but they came years after IDMS.

    Just what WAS ISL? Although the IBM assembler was much more sophisticated than GAP, our aversion to assembler for large-scale software implementation has remained with us. A language like WIZOR was needed for the IBM. Recall that this was 1969. "C" is not yet a gleam in the eyes of Kernighan and Ritchie. IBM is already using PL/S for writing parts of MVT and other software, but they are keeping it proprietary. We had to roll our own. The implementation language was developed with the required IBM/360 features using GE-200 WIZOR 5 as the starting point which gave the programmers a familiar syntax to work with. Coding of IDMS has begun months before there was a compiler to grind the code. The code generator part of the compiler was chopped away and new code written to produce 360-assembler source code. We ran test compiles of small routines and captured the output on 7-track tape, which the GE-200 and the IBM/360 could both read. The code was submitted to the IBM assembler and if errors were found, we adjusted the compiler and tried again. Eventually we got error free assemblies. At this point we could compile the compiler and assemble it on the 360. Intermediate Systems Language (ISL) was ready for business. For the IDMS implementation we had to make do with a primitive one-pass version, as there was no time for unessential improvements. It did the job. Later, a multi pass optimizing compiler for ISL was written to produce code for, and take advantage of all addressing modes of, the PDP-11/45. A highly optimizing version for the IBM-370 followed in 1975. IDMS and all its utilities were originally written in ISL except IDMSDMLC, IDMSCALC and IDMSCHEM.

    At this point, IDMS was ready for production. The initial set of data base tables was hand coded, first in plain assembler, later using macros. The macros were also utilized in creating the first IDD in early 1971 so the schema and subschema compilers had a dictionary to work from. Once those processors were developed, the hand coding of subschema tables came to a welcome end. While the development of the IDMS software was in progress, application programmers were busy converting the components of the order entry system from GECOM to COBOL. The first production on the IBM 370/155 using IDMS was PRESTO, an accounts receivable system. TOPSY, the order entry system followed shortly and many others later. IDMS at this point = was a local mode only system.

    How did IDMS come to exist outside of BFGCC? BFGCC realized that IDMS was marketable software that would find a ready audience among those who, like BFGCC, were early users of IDS but were now confronted with the need to go to an IBM mainframe. A proposal was submitted to BFG management to establish an independent business unit, the Information Systems Division, which would market IDMS and other software yet to be developed and also support BF Goodrich with its corporate data processing needs. Coding pads with the ISD logo were printed and the first edition of the IDMS User's Reference manual bore the ISD inscription as well. Promotional materials like IDMS ashtrays with miniature Lifesaver Radial tires around them were given away to prospective customers. BFGCC began selling copies of IDMS, first to a local company, then to others. The first five customers of IDMS were: ACME Cleveland Co., Abbott Laboratories, General Motors, RCA, and Sperry Rand (UNIVAC). Two more prospective customers, Boeing Computer Services and Western Electric were trying out IDMS but we never got to sign them because the roof fell in on our hopes of becoming an independent division within BF Goodrich.

    Extract: Enter Cullinane Corporation
    Enter Cullinane Corporation
    In 1969 Ben Heineman, CEO of Northwest Industries, has launched a hostile takeover attempt on BF Goodrich which failed but left Goodrich in a vulnerable financial position. Corporate management was busy keeping the Company afloat and had no time or inclination to consider a new business venture, especially one that had an intangible product that was totally unfamiliar to them. At this point it is not clear whether we were turned down in Akron or if BFGCC management scrapped the idea without asking. Since BFGCC had extensive experience in licensing many of its proprietary chemical processes, we were told to take advantage of that expertise and license the product for marketing to another company using some sort of a royalty arrangement. After some research, Jim Gilliam recommended John Cullinane and his Cullinane Corporation. Big John named Tom Meurer project manager, who hired Ron McKinney and Bob Goldman from AT&T Long Lines, and Dave Thole, a freshly minted graduate from the University of Dayton. Don Kraska from BFG Corporate, with more IBM experience than any of us, was on loan to BFGCC to help with the creation of the IDMS installation tape and to help with the DMCL implementation. Shortly after that Cullinane made their first installation of IDMS at a site we already had lined up. The rest, as they say, is history.

    Since then, in 1986 BFG began its transformation from a rubber and chemicals company to one primarily involved in aircraft support systems and maintenance. The Tire Division was combined with Uniroyal's as the Uniroyal-Goodrich Tire Company. Within a year or so BFG sold its interest in the company and was out of the business it was best known for. Next came BFGCC. The Company was busted into three divisions. One sold outright, one kept as the Specialty Chemicals Division, and one spun off as an independent entity called the Geon Company. Specialty Chemicals switched to an AS400 and left IDMS around 1995. Geon went to a SAP based client server system on Digital (excuse me, Compaq) Alpha processors and completed the move of all production from IDMS in February of 1997. The IBM mainframe was removed in April of 1998. And the original development team? Vaughn Austin left BFG in 1995 and is in Technical Systems Support at Alltel's Twinsburg, OH Data Center. Ken Cunningham left BFG in the 80's, worked at various companies in the Cleveland area and is now retired. Jim Gilliam, the "father of IDMS" still works at Geon, has been an Oracle DBA these last three years and was expected to retire at the end of 1998. Pete Karasz served out his time at Geon and took an early retirement offer, have been out since January of 1998. Ron Phillips remained with the Uniroyal-Goodrich Tire Company until Michelin bought it and moved everyone to Greer, SC. Ron passed away when he suffered a heart attack while clearing his drive after a freak snowstorm. Dick Schubert retired from Geon in 1995.

  • Karasz, Peter "The Origins of IDMS" (edited by Chris Hoelscher) Online postings view details Extract: Early Sixties
    Early Sixties
    In the EARLY 60's, B.F. Goodrich Chemical Corporation (BFGCC) acquired a GE-200 system in an attempt to automate more of its data processing functions. Systems were developed using GECOM, a COBOL like language of General Electric for the GE-200. The early compiler had a number of problems and some of the fellows at BFGCC had provided considerable insight in helping GE debug the software, and over time a good working relationship developed. When IDS became available, Dick Schubert (BFGCC IS staff) realized that this could be a powerful tool in developing on-line systems.

    IDS, Integrated Data Store, was designed by Charlie Bachman for General Electric to run on their GE-635 Mainframe under their GECOS operating system. IDS for the GE-200 was a primitive data base manager. It allowed a single file only for the database and had no tools for table generation so they had to be hand coded in assembler. Mistakes in coding the tables combined with bugs in the IDS code itself were a rich source of fatal errors that caused the system to crash, several times a day. BFGCC was not able to bring up a production system with GE's version of IDS due to its unreliability.

    Eventually, BFGCC offered to help debug the software if GE would have no objection. B.F. Goodrich bought the rights and converted it to run on the IBM family of mainframes and renamed it IDMS in the process.IDS for the GE-200 was written in the language of the General Assembly Program (GAP). This assembler had no DSECTS, no macros and no cross-reference. In addition, there were no EXTRN type addresses or a linkage editor to resolve them. The GE-200 had only a loader. IDS and its tables had to be assembled together to create the load module, which meant a big re-assembly taking about 30 minutes, each time you changed either IDS or the tables. Programs communicated with each other through fixed memory locations, assigned in advance and hard coded into the programs that were to use them. Jim Gilliam (of the IS staff) and his team cut the IDS assembly listing apart and studied it subroutine by subroutine until they gained an understanding of the logic used. They also realized that using second generation assembler for implementation of complex software was a loser's game. A new tool was needed.

    GE had a software implementation language called WIZOR. The GE FORTRAN II compiler was written in WIZOR as well as the WIZOR compiler itself. Which made WIZOR an easily modifiable language and a new enhanced dialect, G-WIZ, was soon born. Gilliam and others re-wrote IDS into G-WIZ and so created a dependable version. A copy of the new software was returned to GE as part of the agreement. BFGCC continued to work with its version of IDS and in 1969 it was modified to handle two database files. By this time, BFGCC was now running a (sort of) on-line (more correctly remote batch) order processing system in operation on a GE-265 configuration (GE235 CPU with Datanet-30 network controller) using their modified version of IDS for the GE-200 series machines.

    Extract: IDMS Name Makes Its Debut
    IDMS Name Makes Its Debut
    At this point, BFG instituted a corporate policy dictating that all BFG data centers will select IBM equipment (or else) when upgrading to third generation computers. Since there were no IDS type DBMSs available on IBM mainframes, BFGCC management, after a feasibility study, authorized the development of IDMS. BFGCC was a member of CODASYL and as such, had an advance copy of the CODASYL Data Base Task Group's (DBTG) April 1971 specifications. Also, Schubert, who represented BFGCC in CODASYL, was an active member of the DBTG and thoroughly knowledgeable regarding the proposed specifications. IDMS was developed using a subset of the DBTG's specifications.

    IDMS was designed and written at the Cleveland data center of The BFGCC. Most of the work took place from late 1969 to mid 1971. The project team consisted of five programmers under the management of Richard F. (Dick) Schubert. The programmers and their contributions were as follows: Vaughn Austin, IDMSCALC & IDMSINIT; Ken Cunningham, IDMSDMLC; Jim Gilliam, IDMSDBMS, IDMSIDMS, and the overall design of the IDMS system; Pete Karasz, IDMSDUMP, IDMSPFIX, IDMSRBCK, IDMSREST, IDMSRFWD, IDMSUBSC, and ISL language compiler; and Ron Phillips, IDMSCHEM.

    It is without doubt that the work with IDS gave us the confidence to tackle development of IDMS. It is important at this juncture to stop and point out the facts that the only IDS source ever seen by us was the earliest version for the GE-200 and that no code from IDS has survived into IDMS. We did, however, retain the concepts of file navigation based on tables and the owner-member record relationship. Multi-file databases (DMCL), areas, schemas (DDL) and subschemas are all CODASYL concepts implemented for the first time in IDMS. The IDD was our original contribution and it was not part of the DBTG's specifications until years later. IDS for the GE-200 had none of these features and for that reason alone it could not serve as the basis for IDMS. IDMS was all new design, all new code. Later versions of IDS for the GE-400 and GE-600 series machines were CODASYL compliant implementations but they came years after IDMS.

    Just what WAS ISL? Although the IBM assembler was much more sophisticated than GAP, our aversion to assembler for large-scale software implementation has remained with us. A language like WIZOR was needed for the IBM. Recall that this was 1969. "C" is not yet a gleam in the eyes of Kernighan and Ritchie. IBM is already using PL/S for writing parts of MVT and other software, but they are keeping it proprietary. We had to roll our own. The implementation language was developed with the required IBM/360 features using GE-200 WIZOR 5 as the starting point which gave the programmers a familiar syntax to work with. Coding of IDMS has begun months before there was a compiler to grind the code. The code generator part of the compiler was chopped away and new code written to produce 360-assembler source code. We ran test compiles of small routines and captured the output on 7-track tape, which the GE-200 and the IBM/360 could both read. The code was submitted to the IBM assembler and if errors were found, we adjusted the compiler and tried again. Eventually we got error free assemblies. At this point we could compile the compiler and assemble it on the 360. Intermediate Systems Language (ISL) was ready for business. For the IDMS implementation we had to make do with a primitive one-pass version, as there was no time for unessential improvements. It did the job. Later, a multi pass optimizing compiler for ISL was written to produce code for, and take advantage of all addressing modes of, the PDP-11/45. A highly optimizing version for the IBM-370 followed in 1975. IDMS and all its utilities were originally written in ISL except IDMSDMLC, IDMSCALC and IDMSCHEM.

    At this point, IDMS was ready for production. The initial set of data base tables was hand coded, first in plain assembler, later using macros. The macros were also utilized in creating the first IDD in early 1971 so the schema and subschema compilers had a dictionary to work from. Once those processors were developed, the hand coding of subschema tables came to a welcome end. While the development of the IDMS software was in progress, application programmers were busy converting the components of the order entry system from GECOM to COBOL. The first production on the IBM 370/155 using IDMS was PRESTO, an accounts receivable system. TOPSY, the order entry system followed shortly and many others later. IDMS at this point = was a local mode only system.

    How did IDMS come to exist outside of BFGCC? BFGCC realized that IDMS was marketable software that would find a ready audience among those who, like BFGCC, were early users of IDS but were now confronted with the need to go to an IBM mainframe. A proposal was submitted to BFG management to establish an independent business unit, the Information Systems Division, which would market IDMS and other software yet to be developed and also support BF Goodrich with its corporate data processing needs. Coding pads with the ISD logo were printed and the first edition of the IDMS User's Reference manual bore the ISD inscription as well. Promotional materials like IDMS ashtrays with miniature Lifesaver Radial tires around them were given away to prospective customers. BFGCC began selling copies of IDMS, first to a local company, then to others. The first five customers of IDMS were: ACME Cleveland Co., Abbott Laboratories, General Motors, RCA, and Sperry Rand (UNIVAC). Two more prospective customers, Boeing Computer Services and Western Electric were trying out IDMS but we never got to sign them because the roof fell in on our hopes of becoming an independent division within BF Goodrich.

    Extract: Enter Cullinane Corporation
    Enter Cullinane Corporation
    In 1969 Ben Heineman, CEO of Northwest Industries, has launched a hostile takeover attempt on BF Goodrich which failed but left Goodrich in a vulnerable financial position. Corporate management was busy keeping the Company afloat and had no time or inclination to consider a new business venture, especially one that had an intangible product that was totally unfamiliar to them. At this point it is not clear whether we were turned down in Akron or if BFGCC management scrapped the idea without asking. Since BFGCC had extensive experience in licensing many of its proprietary chemical processes, we were told to take advantage of that expertise and license the product for marketing to another company using some sort of a royalty arrangement. After some research, Jim Gilliam recommended John Cullinane and his Cullinane Corporation. Big John named Tom Meurer project manager, who hired Ron McKinney and Bob Goldman from AT&T Long Lines, and Dave Thole, a freshly minted graduate from the University of Dayton. Don Kraska from BFG Corporate, with more IBM experience than any of us, was on loan to BFGCC to help with the creation of the IDMS installation tape and to help with the DMCL implementation. Shortly after that Cullinane made their first installation of IDMS at a site we already had lined up. The rest, as they say, is history.

    Since then, in 1986 BFG began its transformation from a rubber and chemicals company to one primarily involved in aircraft support systems and maintenance. The Tire Division was combined with Uniroyal's as the Uniroyal-Goodrich Tire Company. Within a year or so BFG sold its interest in the company and was out of the business it was best known for. Next came BFGCC. The Company was busted into three divisions. One sold outright, one kept as the Specialty Chemicals Division, and one spun off as an independent entity called the Geon Company. Specialty Chemicals switched to an AS400 and left IDMS around 1995. Geon went to a SAP based client server system on Digital (excuse me, Compaq) Alpha processors and completed the move of all production from IDMS in February of 1997. The IBM mainframe was removed in April of 1998. And the original development team? Vaughn Austin left BFG in 1995 and is in Technical Systems Support at Alltel's Twinsburg, OH Data Center. Ken Cunningham left BFG in the 80's, worked at various companies in the Cleveland area and is now retired. Jim Gilliam, the "father of IDMS" still works at Geon, has been an Oracle DBA these last three years and was expected to retire at the end of 1998. Pete Karasz served out his time at Geon and took an early retirement offer, have been out since January of 1998. Ron Phillips remained with the Uniroyal-Goodrich Tire Company until Michelin bought it and moved everyone to Greer, SC. Ron passed away when he suffered a heart attack while clearing his drive after a freak snowstorm. Dick Schubert retired from Geon in 1995.