Computing Profession

This is to report a further use of the FORTRAN II Chain System. We, at Sandia, have modified the Chain subroutine to allow for picking up chains from the disk instead of a chain tape. The major change was the addition of a job identification to each chain system, thus allowing for different chain jobs with the same chain number to be available from the disk at any time.

If a problem requires both complicated calculations and edited output printing, then the computing part can be efficiently handled in FORTRAN and the editing part, e.g. punctuation, check protect and floating dollar sign, can be conveniently done in COBOL, in particular by the PICTURE clause. The following programs illustrate the simple technique of combining FORTRAN and COBOL. The main program is written in FORTRAN and the subroutine in COBOL. The programs were run on IBM 7090.

In automatic abstracting, citation indexing, mechanical translation and other such procedures, editing is required whenever the automatic method leaves something to be desired. This paper discusses the economy of editing as a function of the amount of condensation of text in language processing operations, and then contends that editing can be regarded as an opportunity rather than as an unwelcome necessity. “Heavy editing,” which goes beyond mere correction and improvement of computer output, is exemplified by the use of a concordance in preparing a survey article or lecture. Other opportunities for heavy editing are described, chief among them being interpretation and expansion of computer output in such processes as factor analysis. Applications are described, such as the quick, unbiased evaluation of a large volume of incoming mail or telegrams, yielding summary reports not possible for either humans or computers to produce alone.

A data input scheme for a time-sharing computer is described in this paper. Instead of using format statements to determine the input, the computer asks the user for the required values one at a time. The computer converses with the user during the input process, checks for errors, provides standard data, and allows editing of values input.

By using the proper COBOL coding techniques and accounting for differences in storage allocation and library routines between the two languages, it is possible to write FORTRAN IV subroutines that may be called from COBOL main programs. Such a technique enables the programmer to take advantage of the most useful properties of each language while minimizing their respective disadvantages.