'''Job Control Language (JCL):''':	A primitive "shell ScriptingLanguage," used on MainframeComputer''''''s to run batch programs.

''(Was mentioned, by analogy, in ComIsHard.)''

I wouldn't call it "primitive". It is a rather complex language that did its job of managing expensive resources reasonably well. You pretty much had to declare your needed resources ahead of time to make sure they were available before starting a task. It is sort of the "StrongTyping" of computer resources. In this day and age such tight control of resource usage is not the concern it was back in JCL's heyday because hardware is cheaper.

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"Who's the maker of the crud that mangles you and me? I-B-M, J-C-L, M-O-U-S-E!"

Sorry, had to do it...
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A JCL job was once written from scratch in 1963. Every subsequent JCL was CopyAndPasteProgramming :-)
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It was not so much CopyAndPasteProgramming as copy a HollerithPunchCard. I worked for some years doing my research with my main computing done by submitting cards to an IBM system and those cards really mattered. I then moved to a university to start as a lecturer and ordered a card tray for the job control cards. There the computer was an ICL which used George as the job control language and only used one or two cards. Absolute heaven. -- JohnFletcher
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CategoryHistory