A systems analysis workbench
Peter Mason · ITNOW · 1980
Abstract There seems a clear trend towards giving people computer aids, packaged in the form of a comprehensive support system, to enable them to do their work more effectively. Programmers are being provided with ‘programming workstations’ to assist program development [1]. A stand-alone programming workstation, for example, allows a number of programmers to design and code programs while online to a minicomputer [2]. This means that they are not dependent on a possibly overloaded mainframe until a program needs to be passed to the operational mainframe for testing. Decision support systems for managers and administrators aim to provide direct computer support in a way which existing data processing systems have done only very sketchily and as a by-product of their main operations [3]. There is much interest in the naive user and in friendly languages for him (Query-by-Example is one such language which has been advertised on American television).