Re: Low-level vs. High-level programming (was My First Computer)

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

Chuck Morris wrote:

>Charles Richmond <richmond@ev1.net> wrote in message
>3EF52B0B.9DE0B897@ev1.net">news:3EF52B0B.9DE0B897@ev1.net...
>
>> Besides, RPG *is* a programming language, but it is a poor
>> excuse for a programming language IMHO. It is *not* a procedural
>> programming language. Most folks now think that RPG means
>> "role playing game"...or "rocket propelled grenade".
>
>RPG was probably the most bizarre programming language that I ever learned,
>at least in it's earlier versions.  Being designed for producing reports
>(Report Program Generator aka RPG), it had a fixed logic cycle that you had
>to work within to produce the result you wanted.  In one sense it was
>procedural, but only in the sense that it had procedures that it was
>determined to follow, regardless of any ideas you might have to the
>contrary. ;-)

Yes, the "processing cycle" was an all-encompassing outer loop
that drove all the document processing of RPG.

RPG was a computer emulation of a "super punched card accounting
machine"--an extension of the IBM 403 and IBM 407 accounting
machines.  They were programmed with replaceable boards containing
patch wires determining the course of accumulations, printing, etc.,
on the basis of card punches and, particularly, changes in card
punches (that would, for example, signal the end of a group of
cards (records), so that summary information could be printed).

-michael

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