GEORGE (operating System) - GEORGE 1 & 2

GEORGE 1 & 2

George 1 was a simple batch processing system, Job descriptions were read from cards or paper tape which controlled the loading and running of programs, either loaded from cards or paper tape or magnetic tape. The job control language allowed definition of the peripherals and files to be used and handling of exception conditions. The job description would be checked for errors before the job was run. George used the trusted program facilities provided by executive to run the user programs.

George 2 added the concept of off line peripheral handling (spooling). Several different modules, running in parallel, allowed overlapping of input, processing and output operations:

• Jobs were read from cards or paper tape to temporary files on magnetic disk or tape by an input module.
• A central module executed the user programs, taking input from the temporary input files and writing program output to temporary files.
• An output module wrote the temporary output files to physical printers and punches.
• A module was also available for entering jobs from remote job entry stations, the output of the job could be printed on the remote printer.

If the installation was large enough multiple copies of the central module could be run, allowing multiple jobs to be processed in parallel.

The George 2 job control language allowed use of stored macros with conditional facilities.

George 2 provided no file system, the system and user programs relied on the facilities provided by executive. Files on disk were accessed by unique 12 character names and no security other than a "do not erase" bit was provided.

MINIMOP could be run simultaneously with GEORGE 2 on the same machine, to provide on-line time-sharing facilities.