page_title: JOSS
hierarchical_section_title: JOSS
caption_attribution_description: English: Transcript of actual JOSS session from 1970.
context_page_description: JOSS, an acronym for JOHNNIAC Open Shop System, was one of the very first interactive, time-sharing programming languages. It pioneered a number of features that would become common in languages from the 1960s into the 1980s, including line numbers as both editing instructions and targets for branches, statements predicated by boolean decisions, and a built-in editor that can perform instructions in "direct" or "immediate" mode, a conversational user interface.
  JOSS was initially implemented on the JOHNNIAC machine at Rand Corporation and put online in 1963. It proved very popular, and the users quickly bogged the machine down. By 1964 a replacement was sought with higher performance. JOHNNIAC was retired in 1966 and replaced by a PDP-6, which ultimately grew to support hundreds of computer terminals based on the IBM Selectric. The terminals used green ink for user input and black for the computer's response. Any command that was not understood elicited the response "Eh?" or "SORRY".
  The system was highly influential, spawning a variety of ports and offshoots.
context_section_description: JOSS, an acronym for JOHNNIAC Open Shop System, was one of the very first interactive, time-sharing programming languages. It pioneered a number of features that would become common in languages from the 1960s into the 1980s, including line numbers as both editing instructions and targets for branches, statements predicated by boolean decisions, and a built-in editor that can perform instructions in "direct" or "immediate" mode, a conversational user interface.
  JOSS was initially implemented on the JOHNNIAC machine at Rand Corporation and put online in 1963. It proved very popular, and the users quickly bogged the machine down. By 1964 a replacement was sought with higher performance. JOHNNIAC was retired in 1966 and replaced by a PDP-6, which ultimately grew to support hundreds of computer terminals based on the IBM Selectric. The terminals used green ink for user input and black for the computer's response. Any command that was not understood elicited the response "Eh?" or "SORRY".
  The system was highly influential, spawning a variety of ports and offshoots. Some remained similar to the original, like TELCOMP and STRINGCOMP, CAL, CITRAN, ISIS, PIL/I, JEAN (ICT 1900 series), AID (PDP-10); while others, such as FOCAL and MUMPS, developed in distinctive directions. It also bears a strong resemblance to the BASIC interpreters found on microcomputers in the 1980s, differing primarily in syntax details.
caption: Part of a JOSS session at RAND in 1970 in which the user carries out a number of simple calculations in "direct mode". Note the difference between the period at the end of the statements and the interpunct for multiplication.
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