A general purpose programming system for random access memories

Abstract

The Integrated Data Store is an operational tool for programming the GE-225 with Disc Storage Unit. It automatically processes the complex file maintenance and retrieval problems presented by a data storage unit. It gives a high degree of file protection and through data structuring and redundancy elimination, it accomplishes considerable file compression. The user has the option of many storage and retrieval techniques. It yields efficient programs with buffered operation of the disc file. The requirement to structure the data before programming greatly reduces redesign and debugging problems. IDS provides for the first time an effective method for describing the complex interrelationships of data present in most information systems. It further provides the means for efficiently processing and maintaining these in the environment of a mass memory system. It moves list processing techniques out of current limitations of core memory and thus makes them available for practical data processing. We challenge the national standards committees for COBOL, FORTRAN, and ALGOL and the designers of the "New Programming Language" to survey their current accomplishments, which are many, and to determine whether the above capabilities offered by IDS should be added to their languages.