From: "John W. Kennedy" <jwkenne@...>
Date: 2007-07-20T10:00:03+09:00
Subject: Re: Taking the bull by its horns [was background]

Morton Goldberg wrote:
> On Jul 18, 2007, at 9:50 PM, John W. Kennedy wrote:
> 
>> Morton Goldberg wrote:
>>> SOAP = Semi-Optimizing Assembly Program (IIRC)
>>
>> Symbolic Optimizing", I rather think.
> 
> I was depending on a nearly fifty-year old memory, but Google (whose 
> memory is better than mine :) tells me it's actually "Symbolic Optimal 
> Assembly Program".
> 
> Did you actually ever code in it?

Never had a 650 to work on, but read the manual once, a long, long, long 
time ago. My first programs were written for the 7070, which was the 
follow-on to the 650, but, since it used core, had a conventional 
instruction counter instead of a next-instruction-address field.

Back in those days, the entire programmer's reference library for any 
given line of IBM's mainframes could fit into a few 3-ring binders.
-- 
John W. Kennedy
"The pathetic hope that the White House will turn a Caligula into a 
Marcus Aurelius is as na�ve as the fear that ultimate power inevitably 
corrupts."
   -- James D. Barber (1930-2004)