IBM PL/S

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PL/S, short for Programming Language/Systems, is a "machine-oriented" programming language based on PL/I. It was developed by IBM in the late 1960s as a replacement for assembly language on internal software projects; it included support for inline assembly and explicit control over register usage.

Early projects using PL/S were the batch utility, IEHMOVE, and the Time Sharing Option of MVT, TSO.

By the 1970s, IBM was rewriting its flagship operating system in PL/S. Although users frequently asked IBM to release PL/S for their use, IBM refused saying that the product was proprietary. Their concern was that open PL/S would give competitors, Amdahl, Itel (National Advanced Systems), Storage Technology, Trilogy, Magnusen, Fujitsu, Hitachi, and other PCM vendors a marketing advantage. However, even though they refused to make available a compiler, they shipped the PL/S source code to large parts of the OS on microfiche to customers, many of whom thus became familiar with reading it.

Closed PL/S meant that only IBM could modify and enhance the operating system.

In the mid-1970s, a single programmer, working from publicly available documentation, wrote a fully functional PL/S compiler. IBM legal suppressed this software.

This was RAND corporation. They made the mistake of using internal IBM documentation for their development, which they did not have permission to use for this purpose, and IBM legal threaten to sue them, so they never offered the product for sale. They did however advertise its imminent release through SHARE meetings.

PL/S was succeeded by PL/AS, and then PL/X. PL/DS was a closely related language used to develop the DPPX operating system, and PL/DS II was a port of the S/370 architecture for the DPPX/370 port.

As the market for computers and software shifted away from IBM mainframes and MVS, IBM recanted and has offered the current versions of PL/S to selected customers (ISVs through the Developer Partner program.)

[edit] References

  • W.R. Brittenham, "PL/S, Programming Language/Systems", Proc GUIDE Intl, GUIDE 34, May 14, 1972, pp.540-556
  • Gio Wiederhold and John Ehrman, "Inferred SYNTAX and SEMANTICS of PL/S", Proceedings of the SIGPLAN symposium on Languages for system implementation 1971, in SIGPLAN Notices 6(10) October 1971
  • Guide to PL/S II, International Business Machines Corp., 1974. GC28-6794-0 Note that this manual is very out of date with respect to the PL/X language in use today.
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