Hi Ed,
Ed Gould wrote:
On Jul 5, 2007, at 12:47 AM, Clem Clarke wrote:
Hi Tim,
Clement:
My memory is probably incorrect on this but I think Standard Oil did
something like this in the 70's. My memory is really hazy as I only
had a brief exposure to it. I *VAGUELY* remember John ????? sorry I
honestly don't remember his last name was either the architect or
coauthor of the "language". If someone can confirm or scoff this off,
I would be happy either way.
A bit of history, just to fill in a few gaps.
As Paul Gillis wrote in another message, I wrote it at Shell way back in
the early seventies. The PL/I version "proof of concept" version was
written in1969, I believe.
Then I converted it to Assembler, using punched cards, running the
assembler, linker and the Jol itself in a 60K partition. It is still
very happy in a 100K!
I think Amoco/Standard Oil bought it in 1976, and ran their entire
systems using Jol instead of JCL up until a few years ago, when they
converted back to JCL after BP bought them. So for maybe 25 years they
used it totally (well nearly) instead of JCL. There were some really
nice smart guys and gals I worked with at Amoco back then to add some
features they needed.
It was used here in Australia for decades too, by companies like Shell,
Mobil, Air New Zealand, The Federal Government (Australian Bureau of
Statistics), and some 30 companies overall. Gradually, many companies
stopped using MVS, or the they moved all their processing overseas etc.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics just stopped using it last year,
when they switched to Unix, which incidentally was started around the
same time.
And there were some wonderful people and companies here who gave all
sorts of moral and financial support. We tend (tended?) to be a bit
more supportive and co-operative in Australia in those days. More of a
European supportive culture, than a destructive completive model. If
it wasn't for Shell Oil, it would never have been written. And people
like Fergus Gibson, Paul Gillis and numerous others giving
encouragement, and excusing the occasional silly mistake. And, of
course, family support from parents and various brothers (I have 9
younger brothers). Hmmm. Better put a list on the web!
It is interesting that many of the problems users have in this forum
have problems that were solved way back then. It is only because an
American company tried to steal it that IBM aren't selling it now, and
giving you guys and gals an easier way to do things. And God knows I
have tried to get IBM involved since.
It took me decades to understand what really happened (after studying
economics, philosophy, meta-physics, Einstein, Bohm etc), and why
Americans are so litigious and more interested in making money rather
than providing good products or saving the world, or lives (a child dies
every 6 seconds from lack of food or water).
I gave a talk at the Theosophical Society a month or so ago about this -
you can read the interesting part of it here:
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~oscarptyltd/AmericanBeliefsWeb.html
I don't want to bring politics in here, but I will attempt to waylay any
comments about Liberals and the Right by saying this (from the talk)
"Forget Left and Right. Forget Republicans and Democrats. It isn't
about that. It is about Life on the Planet. If there is no Earth (our
plaything), then there is no *us*." Enjoy reading it.
Back to Jol. Of course no company is going to bet their business on a
product that has now got only one developer/maintainer who can get run
over by a bus, or otherwise decide to leave the planet. Which is why it
is going out as Open Source. So others can keep it going. It is still
useful, and deserves to have a life of it's own.
Enjoy life,
Clem
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~oscarptyltd
Soon: www.SaveTheWorldForOurChildren.com
Ed
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