🚀 go-pugleaf

BTW, the ISAM and sort utility ended up getting ported to OS/2 and from 
there to Windows, and they are still bundled with the full PL/I product. 
Documentation in present, if awkward; header files are missing, although I 
have done some of them. They are usable from PL/I via amthd(isam) and call 
plisort.

"John W. Kennedy" <jwkenne@attglobal.net> wrote in message 
news:YiVpf.39987$L7.16162@fe12.lga...
> Tom Linden wrote:
>> On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 18:18:41 GMT, <adaworks@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> "Peter Flass" <Peter_Flass@Yahoo.com> wrote in message
>>> news:Svz7f.100111$7b6.38895@twister.nyroc.rr.com...
>>>> John W. Kennedy wrote:
>>>
>>>> > And 360/20 PL/I, I think.
>>>> >
>>>>
>>>> Was there ever such a thing??? Never heard of it.
>>>>
>>> The IBM System 360, Model 20 was an entry level
>>> machine intended for people transitioning from environments
>>> such as the IBM 407 and 402 environments.  These were
>>> sometimes called EAM (Electronic Accounting machines) and
>>> they operated on punched cards with plug-board panels that
>>> could be reconfigured to handle a wide variety of jobs.
>>>
>>> The Model 20 was largely incompatible with the rest of the IBM
>>> 360 line.  Most of the progams were written in RPG.  The OS
>>> was totally different from anything else in the 360 family and I
>>> recall the version of that OS called BPS (Basic Programming
>>> Support).
>>>
>>> While there were eventually compilers for COBOL and some level
>>> of PL/I, few IBM customers used anything except RPG.   Most
>>> customers were happy to simply transfer their EAM applications
>>> to the Model 20.   Intial deployments of this system required a
>>> continued dependency on punched cards.   Tape was available.
>>> Over time the system did evolve to support a greater variety of
>>> storage devices.
>>>
>>> Eventually, IBM introduced the System 36 and other machines that
>>> were a complete departure from the 360 line and many of the Model
>>> 20 users were able to migrate to those systems.   The next step was
>>> the AS 400 line.  I don't think System 36 or AS 400 provided support
>>> for PL/I, but the AS 400 became one of the best products IBM ever
>>> produced for small business accounting systems.
>>
>> Actually they introduced the System 3 in a vareity of models, and they
>> were eventually replaced by the sytem 32, 34, 35, 38 and then the AS400,
>> The 32 came out around 1975, IIRC
>
> High-end System/3's were similar to the 360/20 -- batch-oriented and 
> card-oriented. Low-end System/3's were interactive.
>
> Replacing the low-end System/3's, The System/32 was single-station, the 
> System/34 was multi-station, and the System/36 was an upgrade to the 
> System/34.
>
> The System/38 was incompatible with the System/3 and the System/3x; it was 
> based on the abandoned "Future Systems" series that had been intended to 
> replace the S/370, and marketed as a replacement for the high-end 
> System/3's, which had hit their architectural limits.
>
> The AS/400 was a convergence of the S/36 and S/38.
>
> One might also add the System/23, which was an attempt to converge the 
> 5100 "Portable Computer" series (IBM's 70's line of PCs) with the 
> System/34. Painfully slow, as the only language was interpreted BASIC, but 
> it at least had ISAM, a usable sort utility, and a program-generator 
> utility.
>
> -- 
> John W. Kennedy
> "But now is a new thing which is very old--
> that the rich make themselves richer and not poorer,
> which is the true Gospel, for the poor's sake."
>   -- Charles Williams.  "Judgement at Chelmsford"