On Oct 2, 2013, at 8:32 AM, M Baker <baker...@gmail.com> wrote: > "I remember > reading that Fred Brooks regrets that it wasn't the systems programming > language for OS/360. I suppose because it was a big, complex language > for the time it didn't quite make the cut." > > I've always been kind of curious about that.
According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PL/I#Early_history): "The language was first specified in detail in the manual “PL/I Language Specifications. C28-6571” written in New York from 1965 and superseded by “PL/I Language Specifications. GY33-6003” written in Hursley from 1967. IBM continued to develop PL/I in the late sixties and early seventies, publishing it in the GY33-6003 manual. These manuals were used by the Multics group and other early implementers. "The first compiler was delivered in 1966. The Standard for PL/I was approved in 1976." So I think the answer to the question "Why wasn't PL/I used for OS/360?" is "It didn't exist yet." -- Curtis Pew (c....@its.utexas.edu) ITS Systems Core The University of Texas at Austin ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
