So I’ve joined a few Mainframe computer FB groups “recently” (last few weeks), and since the market was 80-90% IBM, most of the posters to the group are former “users/programmers” of the IBM System 360/370, etc. platform.
They are dozens of gobble-gook acronyms which seem to be some sort of commands, and they then talk about programming in Assembler Language and they “seemed” to love it, etc.
Somehow, my programming language learning experience was apparently “backwards”: I first learned BASIC in 9th grade; after my first yr in college, I changed gears and started taking CompSci classes, and my first semester was taught COBOL; next semester was FORTRAN; third semester (these were actually “quarters”), we learned PL/1 (similar to ALGOL or Pascal).
All of which were known as high level languages. Then, finally, the next semester after that, the Programming Language class was “Assembler”. Gosh!! I didn’t know anything those days and really didn’t understand the concept or purpose of such a stupid language with having to understand “registers”, “accumulators”, mnemonic “op codes”, “user state”, etc. it was total gobble-gook to me.
It was bizarre and stupid; “why would anyone write programs using this language?” Ok, so, a semester or two later, we were finally taught about operating systems (“what the heck is an ‘operating system’?”); and, it seems “ALL” operating systems just “HAD” to be coded in assembler!
Well, this was around the time I had just started working at Burroughs (Unisys), and I guess I spoke to one of our “systems programming” experts, and learned, no, you don’t need an assembler programming language on Burroughs Mainframes, and, besides, there is no Asembker compiler, etc., and no, the Burroughs OS (called the MCP – master control program) is not written in assembler, and, why the heck, and who the heck would ever code an OS in assembler – since it’s a real tough language to read, much less write. Way too prone to coding errors/bugs.
Whew! Ok, I guess if I flunk this class, I’ll be ok and still get a programming job without knowing this “important” assembler language (this was when I thought my working at Burroughs was just a temp gig while going to college – not knowing I’d spend the next ~30 yrs there).
Anyway, I look at all these people who – again – apparently “enjoyed” programming in such an unreadable language. Its so weird – IBM owned the market and then you had Burroughs who might, at the most, had only a 5% share of the mainframe market, and Burroughs machines were so much easier to program – not only with programming languages, but the Job Scripting language (“WFL”) was so much easier than IBM’s JCL; and the same with command line input, or console commands:
Burroughs IBM
remove q3t56 – command to delete a file
Run 5dt5b#*m – command to run a program
Start fgv,(5 – command to start a job script
Copy fr6cv; – copy a file from one place to another
MT123 uh/7er$ – magnetic tape drive #123
PK123 or “SOURCEPK” mv546gy’8 – disk drive where files were located
Ok, the IBM column aren’t real examples – I made them up – but when you look at the various posts in this IBM mainframe FB group, this is the language they speak!
The reference card in the photo, has examples of assembler – I’ve circled the area of assembler.
SMH.
