system, FMS: Fap, Mad, and Fortran in the form of the nearly equivalent Madtran (memo CC-188). Initial requirements dictated special core-memory-only versions of these compiler programs, but this restriction is being eliminated.
To contrast with batch-computing techniques, it is informative to summarize a typical time-sharing usage. A user has written a subprogram in a compiler language and wishes to incorporate it into his set of programs already developed and kept in the central disk file. After sitting down at a console, he first gives a login command to identify himself. His next command, input, turns his console into a pseudo-keypunch. Using simple conventions, he types in his subprogram for storage with other subprograms on the disk. If he should note any typing or logic errors in his new file, now or at any later time, he can correct the file using an edit command. (If he wanted to avoid the tedium of typing a long program, a suitably trained keypunch operator could just as easily have done the operation in advance.) Using an appropriate command the user can compile his subprogram, and if he has no diagnostics requiring correction, he can prepare to test it. Using the load command, he collects in core the newly compiled subprogram in binary form, any subprograms previously prepared, and the necessary library subprograms drawn from as many libraries as he wishes. If loading is successful, and does not require re-entry for the addition of missing subprograms, a start command initiates his program. He notes the results (if any) that he receives, and after stopping the program, if necessary, inspects the status of various locations and variables within the set of subprograms loaded. After a suitable amount of probing he detects his programming error, makes the necessary corrections, and continues in this manner until he wishes to terminate the session by giving a logout command.
To the above basic time-sharing system, which consists presently of a few dozen commands, many new features and additional commands must be added before it will be generally acceptable. Among the more important ideas are the ability 1) to request from the consoles large-scale delayed printing or punching of programs and cards at the central Center facility;
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