While I didn't take the Neat/3 class in college, it was offered. The university I attended at the time used a NCR Century 151. I "think" they were running the B3 Executive. One partition for running a batch job read in from a card reader, a SPOOL'ing partition, and the other partition was for the O/S???
-----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Pommier, Rex Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2021 12:28 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Neat/3 [was: RE: [External] Programs that work right the first time.] [External Email. Exercise caution when clicking links or opening attachments.] Neat/3 was definitely not a Cobol look-alike. It was a 60'ish version of a high level assembler, in other words not very high level. :-) But it was NCR's assembler language. My first job out of college was converting Neat/3 code on an old computer to Cobol on the afore-mentioned minicomputer. Foot-in-mouth moment. I was going thru the Neat/3 payroll calculation program to convert it and came across an unconditional branch around some code - rendering the code inaccessible. The very next line was a conditional branch around the same code. I pointed out (fresh out of college, I was, so I knew everything) the obvious silliness of this to my boss' boss only to find out later that the boss' boss was the one who had done the coding I was mocking. Oops... Rex -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Farley, Peter x23353 Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2021 10:16 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Neat/3 [was: RE: [External] Programs that work right the first time.] Interesting historical reference. I never actually worked on NCR or in Neat/3, but it was used as the programming language for a civil service test I took many decades ago to apply for a county-level programming job. The problem was that the civil service test announcement never told people who registered for the test that the programming part would require knowledge of Neat/3 (a COBOL look-alike language as I remember being told) so I wrote a long note at the beginning of my answer complaining that Neat/3 was not a commonly known language and was not included in the test announcement and wrote all the test answers in ANSI COBOL. The civil service commissioner responded to the letter of complaint that I sent by declaring that everyone who took the test and answered in COBOL passed but never apologized for failing to post the Neat/3 language requirement in the test announcement. As my mother (a lifelong civil service employee) told me when I described the test to her, the announcement was obviously an "insider announcement" never actually intended to attract anyone not already "in the system". I got on the civil service list for that position but soon after had a far better offer in the private sector and never looked back. Peter -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Bill Hitefield Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2021 9:48 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [External] Programs that work right the first time. Do you remember Neat/3 on the NCR? An interesting language. On third shift at a local bank, I remember setting up card-driven operation "control decks" where we "dialed" HDDs back and forth to keep from having to move the disks. Bill Hitefield Dino-Software Corporation 800.480.DINO 423.878.5660 -- This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and delete the message and any attachments from your system. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN The information contained in this message is confidential, protected from disclosure and may be legally privileged. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, distribution, copying, or any action taken or action omitted in reliance on it, is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to this message and destroy the material in its entirety, whether in electronic or hard copy format. Thank you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN Confidentiality notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, may contain legally privileged and/or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient(s), or the employee or agent responsible for delivery of this message to the intended recipient(s), you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this e-mail message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please immediately notify the sender and delete this e-mail message from your computer. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
