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FACT (computer language)

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</style><table class="infobox vevent"><tbody><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-above" style="background-color:#e0e0e0;">FACT</th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><a href="Programming_paradigm" title="Programming paradigm">Paradigm</a></th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="Procedural_programming" title="Procedural programming">Procedural</a>, <a href="Imperative_programming" title="Imperative programming">imperative</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><a href="Software_design" title="Software design">Designed by</a></th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="Computer_Sciences_Corporation" title="Computer Sciences Corporation">Computer Sciences Corporation</a>, <a href="Honeywell" title="Honeywell">Honeywell</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">First appeared</th><td class="infobox-data">1959 (1959)</td></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header" style="background-color: #EEEEEE;">Influenced</th></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-full-data"><a href="COBOL" title="COBOL">COBOL</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

FACT is an early discontinued computer <a href="Programming_language" title="Programming language">programming language</a>, created by the Datamatic Division of <a href="Honeywell" title="Honeywell">Minneapolis Honeywell</a> for its <a href="Honeywell_800" title="Honeywell 800">model 800</a> series business computers in 1959. FACT was an acronym for "Fully Automatic Compiling Technique".<a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a> It was an influence on the design of the <a href="COBOL" title="COBOL">COBOL</a> programming language.

Some of the design of FACT was based on the linguistic project <a href="Basic_English" title="Basic English">Basic English</a>, developed about 1925 by <a href="Charles_Kay_Ogden" title="Charles Kay Ogden">C.K. Ogden</a>.

The software was actually designed by Computer Sciences Corporation (<a href="Fletcher_Jones_(American_entrepreneur)" title="Fletcher Jones (American entrepreneur)">Fletcher Jones</a>, <a href="Roy_Nutt" title="Roy Nutt">Roy Nutt</a>, and Robert L. Patrick) under contract to Richard Clippinger of Honeywell.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Contributions_to_COBOL">Contributions to COBOL</h2></div>

FACT was an influence in the design of <a href="COBOL" title="COBOL">COBOL</a>, and is one of three predecessor languages credited in all COBOL manuals.

Several elements of FACT were incorporated into COBOL:

<ul><li>Defining data as levels, with group items and elementary items.</li>

<li>Assigning of initial values to data as it is being defined (<code class="mw-highlight mw-highlight-lang-text mw-content-ltr" style="" dir="ltr">VALUE</code> clause).</li>

<li>Specifying a limited list of literal values allowed in a specific field (<code class="mw-highlight mw-highlight-lang-text mw-content-ltr" style="" dir="ltr">88</code> level data items).</li>

<li>A non-procedural report generator based on specifying the appearance of the desired report (Report Section in COBOL-66).</li>

<li>Qualification of data-names (<code class="mw-highlight mw-highlight-lang-text mw-content-ltr" style="" dir="ltr">IN</code> or <code class="mw-highlight mw-highlight-lang-text mw-content-ltr" style="" dir="ltr">OF</code> clause).</li>

<li>Group move of like-named items (<code class="mw-highlight mw-highlight-lang-text mw-content-ltr" style="" dir="ltr">MOVE CORRESPONDING</code>).</li>

<li>Validity checks on procedural statements (<code class="mw-highlight mw-highlight-lang-text mw-content-ltr" style="" dir="ltr">ON ERROR</code> clause).</li>

<li>Built-in <code class="mw-highlight mw-highlight-lang-text mw-content-ltr" style="" dir="ltr">SORT</code> function.</li></ul>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Implementations">Implementations</h2></div>

FACT was implemented in the 1960's, "Five FACT customers are writing all their applications using FACT" and "another dozen Honeywell customers use FACT to differing degrees.",<a href="#cite_note-2">[2]</a> this included a bank and a <a href="Logistics" title="Logistics">military inventory management system</a>. It was being used by Australian Department of Defence in the 1960s and 1970s.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Sample_program">Sample program</h2></div>

The following code samples from the simple payroll application in the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/honeywell/fact/160-2M_FACT_spec_1960.pdf">FACT specification</a> show the fixed-form nature of FACT and its similarities with COBOL.

File outlines:

<div class="mw-highlight mw-highlight-lang-cobolfree mw-content-ltr" dir="ltr"><pre>O 1 RU DETAIL-FILE, (DETAIL),(D)

O 2 DATE

O 3 MONTH

O 4 DAY

O 5 YEAR

O 6 *EMPLOYEE-RECORD

O 7 EMPLOYEE-NO, (EMPLOYNO)

O 8 *NEW-EMPLOYEE,(NW)

O 9 NAME

O 10 RATE

O 11 EXEMPTIONS,(EXEMPT)

O 12 BOND-DEDUCT,(BONDEDUCT)

O 13 BOND-DENOMINATION,(BONDENOM)

O 30 I INTERNAL-FILE1

O 31 WORKING-DATA

O 32 11 D BATCH-SUM

O 33 11 D BATCH-NUMBER

O 34 11 D BATCH-COUNT O

O 35 11 D 1 SUM-OF-HOURS

O 36 11 D CARDS-IN-BATCH O

</pre></div>

Source statements:

<div class="mw-highlight mw-highlight-lang-cobolfree mw-content-ltr" dir="ltr"><pre>P 85 BOND PROCEDURE. WRITE BONDORDER AND SUBTRACT 1 FROM NUM.

P 86

P 87 NOTE. PHASE I OF SAMPLE PROGRAM. THE FOLLOWING PROCEDURES ARE USED TO

P 88 MAKE BATCH CHECKS DURING THE CARD READING PASS.

P 89

P 90 SUMMATION PROCEDURE. ADD RP HOURS TO SUM-OF-HOURS. ADD 1 TO CARDS-IN-

P 91 -BATCH.

P 92

P 93 BATCH-CHECK PROCEDURE. IF BATCH-SUM IS NOT EQUAL TO SUM-OF-HOURS OR BATCH-

P 94 -COUNT IS NOT EQUAL TO CARDS-IN-BATCH SEE BAD-BATCH. SET SUM-OF-HOURS

P 95 AND CARDS-IN-BATCH TO ZERO.

P 96

P 97 BAD-BATCH PROCEDURE. REVERSE NEW-MASTER. CLOSE PAGE OF ERROR-REPORT.

P 98

P 99 L. PUT ZEROS INTO PRINTLINE. SET NUM TO 8.

P 100

P 101 BUILD. PUT EMPLOYNO AND RP HOURS INTO (NUM)TH EN AND EH. SUB-

P 102 TRACT 1 FROM CARDS-IN-BATCH AND NUM. IF CARDS-IN-BATCH IS ZERO WRITE

P 103 ERROR-REPORT, REVERSE NEW-MASTER, LEAVE PROCEDURE. GET NEXT GROUP.

P 104 IF NUM IS ZERO WRITE ERROR-REPORT AND GO TO L, OTHERWISE RETURN TO

P 105 BUILD. END OF PROCEDURE.

</pre></div>

Report descriptions:

<div class="mw-highlight mw-highlight-lang-cobolfree mw-content-ltr" dir="ltr"><pre>R 1 40ERROR-REPORT

A 2 PAGE-HEADING HDEJ 2

F 3 BATCH-NUMBER 24BATCH NO. ^

F 4 PAGE-NUMBER 1 43IN ERROR PAGE ^

A 5 COLUMN-HEADINGS HD 3

F 6 30EMP.NO. HOURS EMP.NO.HOURS^

F 7 60EMP.NO. HOURS EMP.NO.HOURS^

F 8 90EMP.NO. HOURS EMP.NO.HOURS^

F 9 120EMP.NO. HOURS EMP.NO.HOURS^

A 10 ERROR-LINE OO 1

F 11 1ST EN 8 ^

F 12 1ST RH 14 .^

F 13 2ND EN 23 ^

F 14 2ND RH 29 .^

F 15 3RD EN 38 ^

F 16 3RD RH 44 .^

R 101 4OBONDORDER

A 102 BOND-HEADING HDEJ 2

F 103 BPAGE 1

A 104 BONDORDER-LINE OO 1

F 105 M EMPLOYNO

F 106 M NAME

</pre></div>

Report layouts:

<div style="overflow:scroll;" class="mw-highlight mw-highlight-lang-cobolfree mw-content-ltr" dir="ltr"><pre>L 1 PAGE-HEADING BATCH NO. ^ IN ERROR PAGE ^

L 2 COLUMN-HEADING EMP.NO. HOURS EMP.NO. HOURS EMP.NO. HOURS EMP.NO. HOURS EMP.NO. HOURS EMP.NO. HOURS EMP.NO. HOURS EMP.NO. HOURS

L 3 ERROR-LINE ^ .^ ^ .^ ^ .^ ^ .^ ^ .^ ^ .^ ^ .^ ^ .^

L 4 BOND-HEADING BOND ORDERS EMP. NO. NAME DATE BOND PAGE ^

L 5 BONDORDER-LINE ^ ^ ^- ^- ^ . ^

L 6 DEL-HEADING TERMINATIONS EMP. NO. DATE NAME BOND CR. TOTALS.. GROSS TAX FICA INSUR RET PAGE ^

L 7 DELETIONS-LINE ^ ^- ^- ^ ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^

L 8 ERROR-HEADING ERRORS... EMP. NO. DATE TYPE PAGE ^

L 9 ERROR-LINE ^ ^- ^- ^ ^

L 10 TITLE-LINE PLACE CHECK FORM IN PRINTER

L 12 1PAYLINE ^ ^/ ^/ ^ .^ ^/ ^/ ^

L 13 2PAYLINE . ^ . ^ . ^ .^ . ^

L 14 3PAYLINE ^ $****. ^ . ^ . ^

</pre></div>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Sources">Sources</h2></div>

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</style><cite id="CITEREFJean_E._Sammet1969" class="citation book cs1">Jean E. Sammet (1969). PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES: History and Fundamentals. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall. pp. 316–324. <a href="LCCN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="LCCN (identifier)">LCCN</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://lccn.loc.gov/68028110">68028110</a>. <a href="OL_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="OL (identifier)">OL</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://openlibrary.org/books/OL5619276M">5619276M</a>.</cite></li>

<li><cite class="citation book cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://bitsavers.org/pdf/honeywell/fact/160-2M_FACT_spec_1960.pdf">FACT Fully Automatic Compiling Technique A New Business Language</a> (PDF). 1960. 160-2M.</cite></li></ul>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>

<li id="cite_note-1"><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a> <cite class="citation book cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://bitsavers.org/pdf/honeywell/fact/160-2M_FACT_spec_1960.pdf">FACT Fully Automatic Compiling Technique</a> (PDF). Honeywell Electronic Data Processing. 1960. DSI-27.</cite>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-2"><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFClippinger1962" class="citation journal cs1">Clippinger, R. F. (1 August 1962). "Fact". The Computer Journal. 5 (2): 112–119 (118 - Experience with the use of FACT). <a href="Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fcomjnl%2F5.2.112">10.1093/comjnl/5.2.112</a>. <a href="ISSN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISSN (identifier)">ISSN</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0010-4620">0010-4620</a>.</cite>

</li>

</ol></div>

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