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From: jones@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu (Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Jovial (was Re: Info on GE-635)
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Date: 7 Feb 91 15:24:15 GMT
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From article <193900.598@timbuk.cray.com>,
by wws@raphael.cray.com (Walter Spector):
> 
>  - When was JOVIAL written?
      The name dates the language.  Algol 58 was also known as the IAL,
      or International Algorithmic Language.  By the time of the Algol 60
      report, the name IAL was dead.
> 
>  - What were the salient features of Jovial?
      The COMPOOL (common variable pool, if I remember correctly); I
      think this was analogous to FORTRAN unnamed common in many ways.
> 
>  - What did it do/not do well?
      For the time it was written, it was a great improvement on all of
      the alternatives.  By 1975, it was probably still better than many
      alternatives for embedded systems.
> 
>  - What machines was it developed on? and did it run on?
      It ran on essentially every machine the Air Force ever used.  When
      I was at the Rockwell Collins Government Avionics Division in the
      summer of 1986, there were lots of Jovial programmers.  As I
      understand it, the Collins CAPS minicomputer (a nice stack based
      architecture) tended to be programmed in JOVIAL for military
      applications and PL/I for civilian applications.  The first
      generation GPS receivers each contain a CAPS processor programmed
      in JOVIAL.  (I worked with the people who were developing the Ada
      compiler for the AAMP -- the monolithic successor to CAPS.)
> 
>  - Why did(/do) the Feds love it so much?
      Because having a language standard is so much better than having no
      standard, even if the language could be improved on.  JOVIAL was
      never widely used or loved outside the Air Force and their
      contractors, but within the Air Force, it was the standard language
      until Ada came along.
				Doug Jones
				jones@cs.uiowa.edu