peter.far...@broadridge.com (Farley, Peter x23353) writes: > ITYM RL/S (Rand Language for Systems). I was at the SHARE in NY that > year and managed to score a copy of the RL/S manual, but I never had > my hands on a tape. Still have the manual around here somewhere > though. > > If I remember the scuttlebutt correctly, Rand said that they wrote it > in PL/1 and reverse engineered the syntax and semantics from studying > IBM microfiche listings. > > I don't think that any of us have ever understood IBM's paranoia about > PL/S or its successors being in the hands of users. It's just a > language, after all. The only reason anyone I spoke with back then > could imagine was that IBM didn't want PL/S (or any clones) > cannibalizing the use of PL/1, which they were pushing hard, IIRC. > > It would be enlightening if an IBMer of that time at a high enough pay > grade to have participated in those internal discussions would reveal > the real reasons in their autobiography.
PL/S was one of the casualties of the FS effort in the 70s ... then when FS was killed off and 370 was being resurrected ... PL/S was slow to get going. This contributed to difficulty getting relational implementation on MVS ... that and EAGAL was the official grand strategic database for MVS ... and so there wasn't a lot of interest for relational (aka DB2) on MVS until after EAGAL had failed. Some of this is mentioned in MIPENVY, copy http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007d.html#email800920 in this past post http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007d.html#17 Jim Gray Is Missing and from ibm definitions: [MIP envy] n. The term, coined by Jim Gray in 1980, that began the Tandem Memos (q.v.). MIP envy is the coveting of other's facilities - not just the CPU power available to them, but also the languages, editors, debuggers, mail systems and networks. MIP envy is a term every programmer will understand, being another expression of the proverb The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. [Tandem Memos] n. Something constructive but hard to control; a fresh of breath air (sic). "That's another Tandem Memos." A phrase to worry middle management. It refers to the computer-based conference (widely distributed in 1981) in which many technical personnel expressed dissatisfaction with the tools available to them at that time, and also constructively criticized the way products were [are] developed. The memos are required reading for anyone with a serious interest in quality products. If you have not seen the memos, try reading the November 1981 Datamation summary. ... snip ... I had been blamed for online computer conferencing on the internal network in the late 70s and early 80s. "Tandem Memos" were actually kicked off with report that i wrote after a visit to Jim at Tandem (after he had left IBM). MIPENVY mentions that PLS3 (by the POK tools group) wasn't available on vm370 and dos. Part of this was that in the mad rush to get stuff back in 370 product pipelines (after failure of FS), the head of POK convinced corporate to kill-off vm370, shutdown the vm370 development group, and move all the people to POK (or otherwise they would miss MVS/XA ship date ... nearly 8yrs in the future). As it turned out, Endicott managed to save the vm370 product mission, but had to recreate a development group from scratch. It turns out the plans for the vm370 shutdown was to only give them something like month notice (to minimize potential that they could find alternatives). As it turned out the information was leaked several months early (which kicked off witch hunt to find who leaked the info). Somewhat as a result, several found jobs at DEC working on VAX/VMS (joke that head of POK was a major contributor to early VAX/VMS development) misc. past posts mentioning original relation/sql http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#systemr misc. past posts mentioning FS http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys -- virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
