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The Jovial Language anyone?

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Darel Cullen

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Nov 15, 1997, 3:00:00 AM11/15/97
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Has anyone out there got any information, or web addresses for the Jovial
language. Its an IBM creation...

any information useful

Darel

George Byrd

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Nov 15, 1997, 3:00:00 AM11/15/97
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Speaking of "The Jovial Language anyone?"
in <alt.folklore.computers> on Sat, 15 Nov 1997 12:21:45 GMT,
<da...@djcull.demon.co.uk (Darel Cullen)> said:

>any information useful

Jules' (Schwartz) Own Version of IAL, '59 or so.

Try <http://www-library.itsi.disa.mil/org/mil_std/ms1589c.html> for
some info,
<http://www.ddci.dk/ddci/news/jovial_cross.html> for a cross
compiler, and
<http://www.dooki.com/cgi-bin/foldoc.cgi?JOVIAL> for some history.

And try your favorite web search engine: ("jovial" NEAR "programming
language") for more information.


--
Opinions above are NOT those of APAN, Inc. & are NOT legal advice.

"I don't give a damn for any man who can spell a word only one way."
<< Mark Twain >>


Dave Bridger

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Nov 16, 1997, 3:00:00 AM11/16/97
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Darel Cullen <da...@djcull.demon.co.uk> wrote in article
<879596412.16546.0...@news.demon.co.uk>...


> Has anyone out there got any information, or web addresses for the Jovial

> language. Its an IBM creation...
>
> any information useful
>

> Darel
>

As I remember, Jovial was a version of Algol '58. Algol was known initially
as the "International Algebraic Language". The name Jovial stood for
"Jules' Own Version of the International Algebraic Language" and was
originated by Jules Schwartz and a group at SDC (System Development
Corporation). SDC was a spin off of the Rand Corporation, which was
primarily a US government sponsored think tank.

Jovial was used primarily for government projects including the SAGE air
defense computer. IBM had nothing to do with its development.

For a full account see:
Richard L. Wexelblat, History of Programming Languages, Academic Press,
1981.

--Dave


,,,

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Nov 16, 1997, 3:00:00 AM11/16/97
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From article <879596412.16546.0...@news.demon.co.uk>,
by da...@djcull.demon.co.uk (Darel Cullen):

> Has anyone out there got any information, or web addresses for the Jovial
> language. Its an IBM creation...

It's not an IBM creation! Jules' Own Version of the International
Algorithmic Language was developed by Jules (who else) at the Rome
Air Development Center, United States Airforce -- of course, I'm
basing this on memory alone, but plenty has been published on the
history of Jovial.

The IAL, of course, is the former name of the language later known
as Algol 58, father of Algol 60 and grandfather of Algol 68.

Doug Jones
jo...@cs.uiowa.edu

John Varela

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Nov 16, 1997, 3:00:00 AM11/16/97
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>Has anyone out there got any information, or web addresses for the Jovial
>language. Its an IBM creation...

^^^
You mipselled SDC.

John Varela
(delete . between os2 and bbs to e-mail me)


Sarr J. Blumson

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Nov 16, 1997, 3:00:00 AM11/16/97
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In article <879596412.16546.0...@news.demon.co.uk>,

Darel Cullen <da...@djcull.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>Has anyone out there got any information, or web addresses for the Jovial

Jules (?) own Version of the International Algebraic Language. IAL is
also known as Algol 58, the precursor to Algol 60 which is the precursor
to everything.

It has nothing to do with IBM. Before Ada is was the standard high level
language for the US Air Force. The US Navy had a different variation of
IAL, called Neliac.

--
--------
Sarr Blumson sa...@umich.edu
voice: +1 313 764 0253 home: +1 313 665 9591
ITD, University of Michigan http://www-personal.umich.edu/~sarr/
535 W William, Ann Arbor, MI 48103-4943

MDShapiro

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Nov 17, 1997, 3:00:00 AM11/17/97
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sa...@engin.umich.edu (Sarr J. Blumson) wrote in part:

>It has nothing to do with IBM. Before Ada is was the standard high level
>language for the US Air Force. The US Navy had a different variation of
>IAL, called Neliac.

NELIAC was the Navy version of the same IAL. It stood for Naval Electronics
Laboratory International Algorithmic Compiler. It's described in the book
"Machine Independent Computer Programming" by Maurice Halstead and published
in 1962.

NEL became NELC which became NOSC which became NRaD which became the Naval
Space and Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center, San Diego on October 1. It's still
located on Point Loma in San Diego. I work there in the Systems Technology
group. In another connection, Maury Halstead was my major professor at Purdue
in the late 1960s/early 1970s. If there are any questions about NELIAC, I
learned a lot of the lore and will be happy tor try to find answers about it.

Michael Shapiro
msha...@spawar.navy.mil

Edward Rice

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Nov 17, 1997, 3:00:00 AM11/17/97
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In article <01bcf257$2a6e4ec0$01a2d9c7@george>,
"Dave Bridger" <dbri...@inlink.com> wrote:

> As I remember, Jovial was a version of Algol '58. Algol was known
initially
> as the "International Algebraic Language".

International Algorithmic Language.

The name Jovial stood for

> "Jules' Own Version of the International Algebraic Language"...

Same change.


Joe Morris

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Nov 17, 1997, 3:00:00 AM11/17/97
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jo...@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu (,,,) writes:

>From da...@djcull.demon.co.uk (Darel Cullen):


>> Has anyone out there got any information, or web addresses for the Jovial

>> language. Its an IBM creation...

>It's not an IBM creation! Jules' Own Version of the International


>Algorithmic Language was developed by Jules (who else) at the Rome
>Air Development Center, United States Airforce -- of course, I'm
>basing this on memory alone, but plenty has been published on the
>history of Jovial.

There was an implementation of Jovial that IBM distributed as a Type III
package (a non-product-line program, available without charge but on an
as-is basis with no support); this may be what misled the original poster
into thinking it was created by IBM.

I don't have any recollection of the origin of the implementation that
IBM distributed. The version that was shipped was quite buggy; I got
the impression that it might have been the result of an abandoned
product development effort.

Joe Morris

Eric Chomko

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Nov 18, 1997, 3:00:00 AM11/18/97
to

Darel Cullen <da...@djcull.demon.co.uk> wrote:
: Has anyone out there got any information, or web addresses for the Jovial
: language. Its an IBM creation...

The U.S. Air Force was big on JOVIAL at one time. In fact, I worked on a
USAF contract where JOVIAL was used. The Programmers Reference Manual was
put out by the DOD, and was actually pretty good, IIRC.

Eric


: any information useful

: Darel

Bob Morrisette

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Nov 19, 1997, 3:00:00 AM11/19/97
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In article 9e98...@news.demon.co.uk, da...@djcull.demon.co.uk (Darel Cullen) writes:
> Has anyone out there got any information, or web addresses for the Jovial
> language. Its an IBM creation...
>
> any information useful
>
> Darel

JOVIAL was created by System Development Corp. which was part of
RAND Corp. before spinning off to do the SAGE software.
JOVIAL means Jules Own Version International Algebraic Language.
Jules was Jules Schwartz of SDC.

Bob Morrisette


Charlie Gibbs

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Nov 21, 1997, 3:00:00 AM11/21/97
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In article <652njc$b...@mtinsc05.worldnet.att.net> j...@os2.bbs.com (John
Varela) writes:

>As a sidelight: the radar processing portion of the system as originally
>writen in JOVIAL couldn't keep up with real time, so the intermediate BAL
>code that the compiler produced was hand optimized and has ever since been
>maintained in BAL.

Wandering totally off topic for a minute (so what else is new?),
does anyone else feel a bit rankled by the term "BAL" in this
context? It's certainly not BASIC, and if you start playing with
the macro processor it's anything but "basic" assembly language
either.

Besides, "BAL" isn't a language, it's an instruction in that
language. :-)

--
cgi...@sky.bus.com (Charlie Gibbs)
Remove the first period after the "at" sign to reply.


Darel Cullen

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Nov 21, 1997, 3:00:00 AM11/21/97
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In article <652njc$b...@mtinsc05.worldnet.att.net>, j...@os2.bbs.com (John Varela) wrote:
>In <64shja$h...@nnrp4.farm.idt.net>, Eric Chomko <cho...@IDT.NET> writes:
>.
>
>The FAA is still using JOVIAL in the Air Route Traffic Control Center
>computers. It's a variant of, I believe, J5 and was written by IBM for
>S/360 about 1965.

>As a sidelight: the radar processing portion of the system as originally
>writen in JOVIAL couldn't keep up with real time, so the intermediate BAL code
>that the compiler produced was hand optimized and has ever since been
>maintained in BAL.
>

Yeah thats right. The reason I asked the question in the first place is that
i'm working on NAS which is written in Jovial (NAS is the national airspace
system).

Btw/ why pick on my typing?

John Varela

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Nov 22, 1997, 3:00:00 AM11/22/97
to

In <880152825.27485.0...@news.demon.co.uk>,
da...@djcull.demon.co.uk (Darel Cullen) writes:

>In article <652njc$b...@mtinsc05.worldnet.att.net>, j...@os2.bbs.com (John
Varela) wrote:

>Yeah thats right. The reason I asked the question in the first place is that
>i'm working on NAS which is written in Jovial (NAS is the national airspace
>system).

Isn't only the FDP part of NAS used in the UK? Do you know Scott Dunham?

Further aside: When IBM started including BAL in the operational software,
FAA asked them to modify the BAL assembler so it would be COMPOOL sensitive.
IBM wanted something like $100,000 for the job, which was considered an
outrageous price and FAA refused to pay it. I'm sure that amount has been
spent many times over in making hand alterations to the code whenever the
COMPOOL changed.

>Btw/ why pick on my typing?

Eh? Are you referring to capitalization of JOVIAL or what?

Tom Watson

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Nov 24, 1997, 3:00:00 AM11/24/97
to

In article <655ejd$j...@mtinsc02.worldnet.att.net>, j...@os2.bbs.com (John
Varela) wrote:

>
> Further aside: When IBM started including BAL in the operational software,
> FAA asked them to modify the BAL assembler so it would be COMPOOL sensitive.
> IBM wanted something like $100,000 for the job, which was considered an
> outrageous price and FAA refused to pay it. I'm sure that amount has been
> spent many times over in making hand alterations to the code whenever the
> COMPOOL changed.
>

OK, inquiring minds want to know...

What the blazes is COMPOOL.

--
t...@cagent.com (Home: t...@johana.com)
Please forward spam to: anna...@hr.house.gov (my Congressman), I do.

John Varela

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Nov 24, 1997, 3:00:00 AM11/24/97
to

In <tsw-241197...@cypher.cagent.com>, t...@cagent.com (Tom Watson) writes:
>In article <655ejd$j...@mtinsc02.worldnet.att.net>, j...@os2.bbs.com (John
>Varela) wrote:
>
>>
>> Further aside: When IBM started including BAL in the operational software,
>> FAA asked them to modify the BAL assembler so it would be COMPOOL sensitive.
>> IBM wanted something like $100,000 for the job, which was considered an
>> outrageous price and FAA refused to pay it. I'm sure that amount has been
>> spent many times over in making hand alterations to the code whenever the
>> COMPOOL changed.
>>
>
>OK, inquiring minds want to know...
>
>What the blazes is COMPOOL.

The COMmunications tag POOL. Basically the same as Common data. It is a
dictionary of shared data names, locations, and definitions.

In the mid fifties no one had heard of such a concept as data hiding. The
problem was, rather, data sharing.

I wasn't there then (I didn't arrive at MITRE until 1960) so I don't know all
the history. Specifically, I don't know if the COMPOOL concept was originated
on Project Whirlwind for the Cape Cod System (the SAGE proof of concept
experiment) or on SAGE itself. I do believe it was developed at Lincoln Lab.
If not by Lincoln employees who later became MITRE, then by Rand personnel who
later became SDC. Or both, in some combination.

In explanation, take an example. The radar inputs program would receive radar
target reports from the radar site, convert them to system cartesian
coordinates, and store them in a COMPOOL-defined table. Another program would
be called that would try to correlate the received radar returns with the
positions of the aircraft being tracked. The second program would operate on
a table of track data for the aircraft. The COMPOOL-defined track table would
be accessed by the display programs, weapons direction programs, and so forth.

In those days core memory was pretty expensive so all data were packed. The
track table would for example be structured as parallel blocks. In the first
word of the first block, the first bit would probably be a full-empty
indicator. Next might be three or four bits logically encoding the track
status (none, lost, firm, whatever), then four bits for track type (hostile,
unknown, faker, pending, friendly, etc.), and so forth for beacon code (six
bits at that time), x and y positions (16 bits each), x and y velocities,
altitude, and so on and on.

Obviously in order to use this data the software, which was written in
assembler, had to do a lot of masking, ANDing, and shifting. The COMPOOL was
used by the assembler (COMPASS: COMPool ASSembler, succeeded by COSEAL:
COmpass System Extensively ALtered) to automate all this for the programmer.

COMPOOL was carried over into JOVIAL by former SAGE programmers at SDC, one
of whom was the eponymic Jules Schwartz.

John Varela
(delete . between world and net to e-mail me)


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