RE: Mainframe Interactive Programming

The Original Programmer needed a course in Boolean Algebra! If every line had an indicator for 'screen being processed,' it's a 'simple' matter to put a 'goto' (go ahead and hiss) with a negative condition and a tag around such sections:

Original:

01 do something
01n04 do another something
01 etc.

"Improved:"

N01 GOTO NOTONE
Do something
N04 do another something
Etc.
NOTONE tag

This removes indicators from each line, which frees up a lot of memory usage. Not quite a subroutine, but is in the spirit of one. We had an IBM 360/20/5 that kept blowing out the invoicing program. We spent lots of time making such 'efficiency changes--' for every block of indicators removed, you could add another CHAIN or block of calculations!

When everyone is so excited about subroutines and such, I say to myself that people don't understand logic anymore! (;

Paul E Musselman
PaulMmn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jonathan Wilson
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2018 1:15 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Mainframe Interactive Programming

Not quite as old... but I vaguely remember doing that on the S36. But,
I'll be honest, apart from remembering the term - NEP-MRT - I remember
exactly ziltch of how it was done. I also recall having to break up a
larger program on occasion and, if I recall correctly, using the display
file - or possibly the LDA - to pass key(ish) information between so it
looked like one single program when the original one blew past the
maximum size. I honestly can't remember what the maximum size was, but
it was a right PITA when it happened because invariably the huge
monolithic original program wasn't designed to be cut up and every
single line had at least one indicator denoting which display record was
currently being processed. Did the language even have subroutines, it
was such a long time ago, or was I just unlucky that the original
programmer hadn't thought to use them?