8200 IMOS COBOL

[Grondak]

I spent several years programming in IMOS COBOL on 8200 minis.  I found it to be  maddening in some of its limitations.  One I can remember is that it had a finite amout of space per program for variable names.  So with large programs (>5000 lines), I was forced to use very short, cryptic variable names which goes against the philosophy of COBOL being self-documenting.

On the fun side, I enjoyed developing some COBOL games, my favorite being a Star Trek game.

[Aleksandrs Guba]

The NCR IMOS COBOL Programming Language and Compiler.

The NCR IMOS COBOL programming language is based on American National Standard COBOL 1974. This version of American National Standard COBOL is based on the developmental work of the CODASYL COBOL Programming Language Committee through December 1971.

The NCR IMOS COBOL compiler is a cross compiler which operates on an NCR Century 8200 computer having an IMOS III operating system. The NCR IMOS COBOL compiler is called a cross compiler because it generates object programs for either the NCR IMOS COBOL programming language or other COBOL programming languages to be specified later.

The minimum NCR Century 8200 configuration needed to execute the NCR IMOS COBOL compiler is an NCR Century 8200 with 48,000 (48K) bytes or 24,000 (24K) words of memory, one 656 magnetic disc spindle, one M63 magnetic tape cassette unit, one 349 line printer, and one 796-101 CRT terminal. One 369 punched card reader is an optional peripheral unit for the NCR IMOS COBOL compiler. The NCR IMOS COBOL compiler program is executed in the interactive multiprogramming environment provided by the NCR IMOS III operating system.

Those were the days!