C-10(ID:5442/c::011)

First Mnemonic codeset 

Holberton's instruction code for the BINAC, the first to use Mnemonic code.

It was said by Hopper to be "the basis for all subsequent programming languages" (She also said Holberton "was the best programmer" that she had ever known) Bergin 2000

from WTI:
"What are you most proud of?

The design of the instruction code of UNIVAC 1 and the code called C-10. I was in engineering in those days and I had just come from programming the ENIAC. That code was mostly designed at night while I was laying awake. My daughter said it was a form of psychology. I always stayed in the background and got most things done without people knowing that. I had to learn to speak out and it effects me today. We have sessions at the nursing home and I speak up and they all sit there."


From WP Obit:
"Late in life, Mrs. Holberton was credited for her efforts to make the language and equipment of programming user-friendly. After World War II, she created an instruction code, called C-10, that allowed for control of the new UNIVAC -- the first general-purpose computer -- by keyboarded commands rather than by dials and switches.

While engineers focused on the technology of computing, Mrs. Holberton lay awake nights thinking about human thought processes, she later told interviewers.

She came up with language using mnemonic characters that appealed to logic, such as "a" for add and "b" for bring. She designed control panels that put the numeric keypad next to the keyboard and persuaded engineers to replace the UNIVAC's black exterior with the gray-beige tone that came to be the universal color of computers."

Abbott (1995) "The C-10 Code simply listed the instruction set of for UNIVAC. It also contained a simplistic chart of the timing cycles of the UNIVAC (alpha, beta, gamma, and delta time). Gamma and delta was when the instructions were executed. Alpha and beta time took care of stepping from one instruction to the next instruction, and initializing the instruction execution process."

Wikipaedia lists Ida Rhodes as a co-creator

People:
Related languages
ENIAC short code => C-10   Influence
C-10 => A-0   Compiled to
C-10 => ACOMCAS   Evolution of
C-10 => ARITH-MATIC   Compiled to
C-10 => B-0   Compiled to
C-10 => MATH-MATIC   Compiled to
C-10 => SAP   Influence
C-10 => X-1   Evolution of
References:
  • Snyder, F E "Proposed 7 pulse code for UNIVAC with odd checking pulse", 5/6/49 view details External link: Bibliographical reference at the SI
  • Snyder, F E "UNIVAC Instructions C-10", 6/10/49 view details External link: Bibliographical reference at the SI
  • Snyder, F E "UNIVAC Instructions code C-10" 5/6/49 view details External link: Bibliographical reference at the SI
  • Snyder, F E "UNIVAC Instructions Code C-10" 27 Jan 1950 view details External link: Bibliographical reference at the SI
  • Greene, Mary Lou. The edited record (to provide a record of the transition from MATH-MATIC pseudo-eode sentences through ARITH-MATIC pseudo-code operations into the final UNIVAC C-10 running program). 1957 view details
  • Bemer, R "Techniques Department" - Translation to another language rather than compiling view details
          in [ACM] CACM 1(07) July 1958 view details
  • Abbott, Bob - Interview with Bob Abbott by George Michael in 1995 as part of "Stories of the Development of Large Scale Scientific Computing at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory" view details Extract: Anecdote
    In those days, programming was not at all like it is today. Each of us was given a copy of the C-10 code, which was published by UNIVAC. It probably wasn't even thirty pages in length.
    The C-10 Code simply listed the instruction set of for UNIVAC. It also contained a simplistic chart of the timing cycles of the UNIVAC (alpha, beta, gamma, and delta time). Gamma and delta was when the instructions were executed. Alpha and beta time took care of stepping from one instruction to the next instruction, and initializing the instruction execution process.
    The C-10 code was the only training we received. The drill was: Read the C-10 manual; Write a program. That was the way everyone started.
    It was not an assembly language. This was machine code, consisting of a letter (A for add, S for subtract, M for multiply, etc.), and an address. Addresses ranged form 000 to 999. The UNIVAC contained 1,000 words of 12-characters each - 60 bits per word. The machine's architecture used Excess-3 notation - a binary arithmetic wherein zero was represented by the binary three.


          in [ACM] CACM 1(07) July 1958 view details
  • Rachel K. Adelson, "Programmed to Succeed: Betty Holberton", Association for Women in Computing, 1997 view details External link: Online copy
          in [ACM] CACM 1(07) July 1958 view details
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