From: "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" Date: 2006-09-08T12:21:10+09:00 Subject: Re: A little idiom I like Rick DeNatale wrote: > On 9/7/06, Trans wrote: >> I recollect an old OS called COS (Cobol Operating System?) That >> actually used dot notation to separate directories. Now if only that >> would have caught on and our object systems and file system could have >> become seemless entiites. He he. I'm dreaming... > > Then of course there was a family of operating systems which started > in the 1960s from a little known computer company named with three > letters like HAL, or JCN, or something like that that used /'s > extensively in it's "shell" language, something like > > //STEP1 EXEC PGM=IEBCOPY > //SYSIN DD * > THIS IS SOME DATA > /* > //SYSOUT DD DSN="FRED" > > Which was sort of like the equivalent of $cat >FRED > > T'was something like that, the memory fades away. > Hmmm ... so *that's* where the C++ comment convention came from -- they had to do that to comment out the JCL! True story -- I was once working on a Sigma Nine at Goddard Space Flight Center. We had a bunch of VIPs touring the lab, and at one point they came by my terminal. One of them asked me, "What are you doing?" I told her I was editing a JCL file. She said, "That's JCL? I can actually *read* it!"