DIBOL
DIBOL or Digital's Business Oriented Language is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language, designed for use in Management Information Systems (MIS) software development. It has a syntax similar to FORTRAN and BASIC, along with BCD arithmetic. It shares the COBOL program structure of data and procedure divisions.
Paradigm | procedural, imperative, structured |
---|---|
Developer | DEC |
First appeared | 1970 |
Stable release | DIBOL 1992
/ 2002 |
Typing discipline | static |
Major implementations | |
Synergex DBL, DEC VAX DIBOL, others | |
Influenced by | |
BASIC, Fortran, COBOL |
History
DIBOL was originally marketed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1970.
The original version, DIBOL-8, was produced for PDP-8 systems running COS-300. The PDP-8-like DECmate II, supports the COS-310 Commercial Operating System, featuring DIBOL.[1]
DIBOL-11 was developed for the PDP-11 running COS-350 operating system. It also ran on RSX-11, RT-11, and from 1978 on RSTS/E. DIBOL-32 runs on VAX/VMS systems, although it can also be used on other systems through emulators.
ANSI Standards were released in 1983, 1988 and 1992 (ANSI X3.165-1992). The 1992 standard was revised in 2002.
DIBOL compilers were developed by several other companies, including DBL from DISC (later Synergex), Softbol from Omtool,[2] and Unibol from Software Ireland, Ltd.[3] Development of DIBOL effectively ceased after 1993, when an agreement between DEC and DISC replaced DIBOL with DBL on OpenVMS, OSF/1, and SCO Unix.[4][5]
An alternative
Rather than code either DIBOL or COBOL, an alternative was to use Business Controls Corporation's SB-5 package, which could generate COBOL code for the PDP-11, DECsystem-10/DECSYSTEM-20.[6] or VAX, including an option for COBOL inserts and overrides.
See also
References
- "Introduction to DIBOL-83. Digital Equipment Corporation". April 1984.
- Enterprise, I. D. G. (1985-10-07). Computerworld. IDG Enterprise. p. 66.
- Babcock, Charles (1985-09-30). AT&T unwraps applications packages for 3B series. ComputerWorld. IDG Enterprise. p. 28.
- "DISC ANNOUNCES NEW DIBOL STRATEGY IN ASSOCIATION WITH DIGITAL". www.thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
- "Area Software Firm Gets DEC Contract". The Sacramento Bee. February 18, 1993.
- "DECsystem-10 and -20 Mainframe Software from Business Controls Corp". Hardcopy. January 1983. p. 128.
External links
Reading
- American National Standards Institute; Computer and Business Equipment Manufacturers Association (CBEMA) (1988). American National Standard for Information Systems- Programming Language, DIBOL. New York, NY: American National Standards Institute. OCLC 23056850.
- American National Standards Institute; Computer and Business Equipment Manufacturers Association (CBEMA) (1992). American National Standard for Information Systems- Programming Language, DIBOL. New York, NY: American National Standards Institute. OCLC 27058852.