Reviving JOSS running on the JOHNNIAC

Software
11

There was a version of JOSS for the Burroughs B5500, originally named “BOSS” (Burroughs Open-Shop System) but later released as “INTERP.” The source code has survived and is available in an archive of the Mark XIII System Software release from 1971. See the file SYMBOL2/SYMBOL/INTERP in the zip archive. It’s written in B5500 Extended ALGOL

There’s no filename extension in the archive, but the file is just ASCII text. Note the following ASCII substitutions for the special characters used by B5500 ALGOL:

  • “~” left-arrow (assignment operator, “=” was used for equality)
  • “|” small-cross (multiply operator, “*” was used for exponentiation)
  • “!” not-equal operator
  • “{” less-than-or-equal operator
  • “}” greater-than-or-equal operator

The Charles Babbage Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has a document from 1965 on the original BOSS implementation in its Burroughs Corporation Records collection, CBI90-74, Box 33, Folder 15.

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