[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message]

Re: XML design of ((a and b) or c)

• From: "Ken North" <kennorth@s...>
• To: <xml-dev@l...>
• Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2006 13:34:18 -0800

>> It's possible that Lisp in 1958 had the AND/OR feature; [4] is a good
>> read but doesn't give clear enough indication of Lisp prior to 1.5.
>>
>> Does anybody know of a language after Algol 58 and before Lisp 1.5 that
>> had this feature?

Keep in mind AND gates and OR gates were fundamental computer circuitry, just
like adder circuits, timing circuits and registers. So there were machine
language and assembly language programmers using AND and OR instructions of
various flavors.

As for compiled languages, both FORTRAN and COBOL had keywords for AND and OR
logic.

Grace Hopper developed FLOWMATIC for Univac in the 1950s, which fed into the
COBOL standard. I don't know about FLOWMATIC, but COBOL had/has 'AND' and 'OR'
keywords. Grace Hooper and the Univac I are shown in this 1952 photo at the
Computer History timeline of software and languages:
http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/?category=sl

Another language that emerged in the 1950s was FORTRAN. FORTRAN has logical
statements with .AND. and .OR. logical operators, but I don't know precisely
what year they became part of the language. My old FORTRAN reference manual sits
in the Computer History Museum. It was FORTRAN IV (vintage 1964), when FORTRAN
included .AND. and .OR. operators.

An earlier version (FORTRAN II) apparently didn't have .AND. and .OR. This is an
IBM 704 FORTRAN reference manual from 1958:
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/704/C28-6000-2_704_FORTRANII.pdf

This photo of the IBM 709 computer is vintage 1957.
http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/mainframe_2423PH709.html

This reference manual for the IBM 709 explains the machine instruction set,
including AND and OR instructions. It also includes an IBM 709 FORTRAN
reference.
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/709/709_RefMan_Fortran.pdf











======== Ken North ===========
www.WebServicesSummit.com
www.SQLSummit.com
www.GridSummit.com

• Follow-Ups:
  • RE: XML design of ((a and b) or c)
    • From: "Klotz, Leigh" <Leigh.Klotz@x...>

• References:
  • RE: XML design of ((a and b) or c)
    • From: "Klotz, Leigh" <Leigh.Klotz@x...>