The Present Status, Achievement and Trends of Programming for Commercial Data Processing
Robert W. Bemer · 1962
Programming for commercial problems requires all of the techniques necessary to scientific problems and a great many more. This paper documents some of the basic elements derived in the explosive development of programming techniques that has taken place in the last eight years, which is the short time that electronic data processing equipment has been applied in volume to commercial applications. Programming costs are already a major portion of total data processing expenditures. This relative percentage may be expected to increase as new hardware advances come into production. It is therefore particularly important to assess the possibilities in reduction of programming costs through automatic techniques. Among these are machine-independent languages, program generators for special classes of recurring problems, program-hardware interactions, and total systems control programs. There are several trends to be noted in programming methods. Among these are the automatic operating systems (with disappearance of the operator console), tabular languages, input-output control systems, the automatic production of automatic programming processors, remote operation of computers through communications links and corresponding service to small users, standardization of techniques and communication between different computers by common language. There is also an important trend to generalize programs and share them among many users of a particular class of machine through trade organizations. Commercial programming has developed into a complex discipline of its own, with professional status. Technical education and publication therefore assumes an increasing importance.