Re: RPG Trivia

[Rob Dixon <rob.dixon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jeff


> Do you know the name of the person who invented RPG - a woman in the US Navy
> in 1964 I believe.

At the risk of showing my age, I can tell you that the very last computer course
that I attended was in 1965 and this was for RPG on an IBM 1440 - i.e. before
system /360.  Since the 1440 had been around for a little while then, I imagine
that RPG had also.   I always assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that it was an IBM
language.  For those that don't know, the acronym was for Report Program
Generator.  It was for batch use only, and was intended to be easy to learn for
those used to wiring plug boards on IBM punched card machines, such as IBM 421
tabulator, 609 summary punch etc..  I had already done a course on wiring those 
-
you didn't get bugs, you got "back circuits".  Although it was batch only, you
could do create some quite sophisticated programs with it and sometime these 
were
quite large - even as much as 64k on a /360 !!  Programs were much smaller then.

Grace Hopper did not work for IBM - she was in the US navy.  I doubt that she 
had
anything to do with RPG.

Best wishes

Rob
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