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Guy Harris (talk | contribs) The biggest feature that distinguishes the basic assembly language from the other assembly language is support for macros, so indicate that. |
Guy Harris (talk | contribs) The big new feature in the post-BAL assembly language was support for macros. Some macro assemblers supported more features than others; see, for example, pages 143-145 of http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/360/asm/C28-6514-5_IBM_System_360_Assembler_Language_Level_E_F_Dec67.pdf. Distinguish between S/3x0 macro assembler language and its variants, and the assemblers that supported them. |
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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, such as support for [[assembly language#Macros|macros]]. This language, and the line of assemblers that implemented it, 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
The latest derived language is known as the '''IBM High-Level Assembler''' ('''HLASM''').
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