Beschreibung:

COBOL: Initial specifications for a COmmon Business-Oriented Language . Washington, D.C.: Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, 1960. 4 o. Original blue printed wrappers. Part of a group of materials assembled for the Remington Rand UNIVAC computer seminar for the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (December 5-9, 1960). FIRST EDITION for the first report on the first programming language designed to run on all computers, regardless of make or model. The computer language COBOL had its origin in a meeting held at the Pentagon in May 1959, attended by a group representing computer users, manufacturers, universities, and the government. This meeting was convened to discuss the possibility of developing a common business-oriented computer language, using English words instead of mathematical codes, which could be used on all computers independent of make and model. Such a language would eliminate the necessity of having to learn separate programming languages for different makes of computers, thereby greatly reducing the time and effort needed to develop data-processing programs. The committee decided that such a universal language was both necessary and feasible, and three subcommittees--named Short Range, Intermediate Range, and Long Range, respectively--were formed to carry out the project. This is offered in a 3-ring binder printed with the UNIVAC log on the upper cover comprising approximately 30 mimeographed and printed materials from Remington Rand's UNIVAC computer seminar for the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, December 5-9,1960. This notebook is divided into seven sections: Computer Fundamentals; System Fundamentals; Design App[lication] of Advanced System; System Simulation and Games; System Languages; Plan Imp[lementation?] of Computer Sys[tem]; and Examp[le] of Adv[anced] Sys[tem] Equipment. These sections are preceded by an illustration of punched paper tape, a printed title-leaf (incorporating images of naval aircraft and submarines), a mimeographed agenda listing each day's talks and speakers, brief biographies of the seventeen UNIVAC participants, a directory of key UNIVAC personnel in Washington, DC, and the mimeographed text of Knorr's opening address. For full details see OOC 543, 1260. [ With: ] COBOL-61 extended. Report ... including specifications for a common business oriented language (COBOL) for programming electronic digital computers [cover title]. [Washington, D.C.:] U. S. Department of Defense, 1962. Mimeographed document. Original blue printed wrappers. In 1961 a revised version of the initial COBOL report, titled COBOL-61: Revised Specifications for a Common Business-Oriented Language , was issued by the COBOL committee. Even after this revision, COBOL still lacked certain major components necessary for business data-processing programming; these were provided in the present work, "which contained major (Report Writer facilities and SORT verb), and a few minor additions to COBOL-61" (Sammet, History of Programming Languages , 1969, 333). OOC 544.