SabreTalk
SabreTalk is a discontinued dialect of PL/I for the S/360 IBM mainframes running the TPF platform. SabreTalk was developed jointly by American Airlines, Eastern Air Lines and IBM. SabreTalk is known as PL/TPF (Programming Language for TPF).[1]
SabreTalk programs are still running in the British Airways Flight Operations system (FICO), although a commercially available automatic converter is being used to translate SabreTalk programs to C programs. Both the Reservations and Operations Support System (OSS) of Delta Air Lines were developed using both SabreTalk and IBM 360 Assembler. Although development is currently restricted to C++, the majority of Delta's programming platform remained in Sabretalk until recently in the 2010s.
Because of the translator[2] from SabreTalk to C and because it is no longer supported by the original developers, several companies are beginning the move away from SabreTalk to purely C-based programs.
Code Sample:
SAMPLE: PROCEDURE; DECLARE ARRAY(10) DECIMAL(5) BASED(POINTUR); DECLARE COUNTER BINARY(15) ALIGNED; DECLARE TOTAL BINARY(31) ALIGNED; START(POINTUR=#RG1); /* RECEIVE POINTER TO ARRAY IN REGISTER 1 */ TOTAL = 0; LOOP: DO COUNTER = 0 TO 10 BY 2; TOTAL = TOTAL + ARRAY(COUNTER); /* TALLY EVEN NUMBERED ITEMS */ END LOOP; IF TOTAL = 0 THEN /* VALUE OF TOTAL COMPUTED? */ ENTRC ERRO; /* N=CHECK VALIDITY IN PROG ERRO W/RETURN EXPECTED*/ BACKC(#RAC= TOTAL); /* BACK TO CALLING PROGRAM PASSING VALUE OF */ END SAMPLE; /* TOTAL IN REGISTER RAC. */
References
- ↑ S. J. Hobson, "ALCS -- A High-Performance High-Availability DB/DC Monitor", p. 136 (footnote 2) in High Performance Transaction Systems, 2nd International Workshop, Asilomar Conference Center, Pacific Grove, California, USA, September 28-30, 1987, Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 359, Springer 1989, ISBN 3-540-51085-0.
- ↑ S. Dhinakar Jacob, Madhuchhanda Das, "TALK2C: A Tool for Automatic Migration," icpc, pp.288, 11th IEEE International Workshop on Program Comprehension (IWPC'03), 2003
External links
- Sabretalk Programmer's Reference Guide
- Moving From SabreTalk to "C", by Jeff Robinson, March 2001, ACP/TPF Today