Re: [TUHS] TUHS] where did "main" come from?

Lawrence Stewart <stewart(a)serissa.com> asks on Fri, 22 May 2020 14:43:40 -0400: I have just checked several PDFs of IBM mainframe and Fortran manuals going back to 1954. The early manuals did not appear to use the name "main", but in ibm-7030/C22-6578_7030_Programming_Examples_Apr61.pdf, the phrase "the main program" occurs in the context of assembly language coding. In ibm-7030/C22-6751_7030_FORTRAN_IV_May63.pdf, on page 22, which begins with Part II. FORTRAN Programming for the IBM 7030 the first paragraph ends with "the main program". In silliac/SPMpart1-ocr.pdf, titled Silliac Programming Manual The Adolph Basser Computing Laboratory School of Physics The University of Sydney and dated January 1959, on page 99, I find I have many manuals for older systems, but most have not been subjected to optical-character recognition, so it is difficult to find specific text in them. Nevertheless, I have demonstrated that by at least January 1959, the phrase "main program" was common enough to appear in computer documentation, qualified by "usually". Some day, perhaps I'll find time to do OCR conversion on my extensive PDF file archives. I'll be pleased to hear of earlier uses of "main program" from TUHS list members. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Nelson H. F. Beebe Tel: +1 801 581 5254 - - University of Utah FAX: +1 801 581 4148 - - Department of Mathematics, 110 LCB Internet e-mail: beebe(a)math.utah.edu - - 155 S 1400 E RM 233 beebe(a)acm.org beebe(a)computer.org - - Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0090, USA URL: http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/ - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------