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add an infobox for the in-between versions, otherwise it's kind of misleading |
Guy Harris (talk | contribs) Move statement about the entire set of assembly languages and their assemblers to the paragraph about all of the original assembly language's successors. |
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The first of these, the '''Basic Assembly Language''' ('''BAL'''), is an extremely restricted [[assembly language]], introduced in 1964 and used on 360 systems with only 8 KB of main memory, and only a [[card reader]], a [[card punch]], and a printer for [[input/output]], as part of [[IBM Basic Programming Support]] (BPS/360). The Basic Assembler for BAL was also available as part of [[Basic Operating System/360]] (BOS/360).
Subsequently, an assembly language appeared for the System/360 that had more powerful features and usability. This line of assemblers continued to evolve for the [[System/370]] and the architectures that followed, inheriting and extending its syntax. Some in the computer industry referred to these under the generic term "Basic Assembly Language" or "BAL".<ref>For instance, see {{cite book | title=System/360–370 Assembler Language (OS) | first=Kevin | last=McQuillen | publisher=Mike Murach & Associates | ___location=Fresno, California | date=1975 | lccn=74-29645 | page=17}}</ref> Many did not, however, and IBM itself usually referred to them as simply the "System/360 Assembler Language",<ref>For instance, {{cite book | title=A Programmer's Introduction to IBM System/360 Assembler Language | publisher=International Business Machines Corporation | ___location=Poughkeepsie, New York | date=1969 }}</ref> as the "Assembler" for a given operating system or platform,<ref>For instance, on the "yellow card", sixth page of foldout, marked as for OS/VS, VM/370, and DOS/VS: {{cite document |date=November 1976 |title=System/370 Reference Summary |___location=White Plains, New York |publisher=IBM Corporation }} Fourth edition.</ref> or similar names. Specific versions of this assembler were known by such names as Assembler E, Assembler F, Assembler H, and so forth. Programmers utilizing this family of assemblers also refer to them as ALC (for Assembly Language Coding), or simply "the assembler".
The latest derived language is known as the '''IBM High-Level Assembler''' ('''HLASM''')
==General characteristics==
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