Welcome to the Datatron 205 and 220 Blog

This blog is a companion to T J Sawyer's Web Page that outlines the history of the Burroughs Datatron 205 and Paul Kimpel's incredible 205 and 220 emulators. Please visit those sites and return here to post any comments.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Burroughs 205 Programming Languages

Bob Kubic's note below made me think that I should add a page to the Datatron site about the various languages that we used to program the 205. If anyone has suggested additions to this list, please add a comment to this post or e-mail me with them.

I'll be working on this over the next couple of weeks along with a page that features the package design so well-illustrated by Bob's photos.

205 programming languages that I am aware of include:
  • Machine Language
  • Shell Symbolic Assembly Program (Shell Oil)
  • The Burroughs Algebraic Compiler for the 205 (Don Knuth)
  • Datacode 1 (Saul Rosen)
  • Dumbo (Bob Kubic)
  • Machine Language Simulator (Tom Sawyer)
That last one was my own contribution, utilized at the University of Portland for student programs.
Posted by at

3 comments:

The Elderly said...

You surely haven't forgotten Fortocom. My recollection is that it resembled Fortran. Unfortunately, Fortocom didn't work and therefore perhaps does not deserve to be in the list.

June 6, 2011 at 11:03 PM
T J Sawyer said...

I can't believe that I didn't include FORTOCOM on this post! I did include it on the Programming Languages Page over on my main Datatron site:

http://tjsawyer.com/B205Lang.htm

I am unclear on whether it ever worked at all since the developers used it and successfully sold a Datatron to Philips based on it.

June 6, 2011 at 11:35 PM
The Elderly said...

I can just about see that Machine Language Simulator now. Chunk, chunk, chunk, pulling cards through the card ready. Compute for a few seconds, spin the loop of paper tape, jerk the tape drive around a little and start over. Pretty cool in a primitive sort of way.

June 9, 2011 at 11:41 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)