The Case For Perspicuous Programming
The various URLs given here spring from an essay published in Computer 2003 April. They supplement the URLs given in the published essay by giving links to more early program documentation methods.
  • Larry Press, The Next Generation of Busines Data Processing CACM, 1999 February, pp.13-16 (the introduction gives the context for FARGO and RPG)
  • IBM 1401 (just mentions RPG and FARGO; 1401 FARGO was developed by an IBMer called Claud Dolittle, a nephew of the General Dolittle of U.S. Air Force fame, and he extended it to the 1440, but this was never widely used; instead IBM promoted RPG)
  • Ken North, Database Hall of Fame (traces RPG back to MIT's COMPOOL)
  • La granda storia dell'evoluzione informatica dal 1955 al 1959 (lots of pictures of the machines that ran RPG and FARGO, and the machines they replaced)

  • Mary Brandel, 1959: The creation of Cobol
  • Bob Bemer, Interview (IBM's representative in COBOL development, mentions COMTRAN)

  • Project Technology, Executable UML
    One comment on the essay found it ironically unclear my recommendation that "Developers should add algorithmic code for any program module only after its documentation is complete and all parties have tested and agreed to it." (commenter added emphasis.)

    The point I was trying to make was that the documentation of interactive programs is the most important part of such programs, and so needs testing before any attempt is made to include "executable" code.  The "executable" code (that is, what is traditionally regarded as program code) is, or should be, a relatively trivial aspect of the development, more properly to be done by people skilled in that particular craft and irrelevant to those most interested in the product being developed.