IBM Systems Application Architecture - Common Programming Interface (CPI)

Common Programming Interface (CPI)

The Common Programming Interface attempted to standardize compilers and application programming interfaces among all systems participating in SAA, with the objective of providing "a common programming interface for the entire IBM computer product line - PCs, System/3x, System/370. This implies that under SAA, a program written for any IBM machine will run on any other".

CPI included a number of pieces:

  • Programming languages — PL/I, COBOL, Fortran, C, RPG and REXX.
  • Application generator — IBM Cross System Product (CSP).
  • Database access — SQL.
  • Query interface — QMF.
  • Presentation interface — the OS/2 Presentation Manager was a full implementation of the SAA presentation interface. IBM Graphical Data Display Manager (GDDM) provided compatible SAA graphics support for MVS and VM.
  • Dialog interface — ISPF represented the text mode dialog interface; OS/2 represented the full graphical interface.

Read more about this topic:  IBM Systems Application Architecture

Famous quotes containing the words common and/or programming:

    We are the creatures of imagination, passion, and self- will, more than of reason or even of self-interest.... Even in the common transactions and daily intercourse of life, we are governed by whim, caprice, prejudice, or accident. The falling of a teacup puts us out of temper for the day; and a quarrel that commenced about the pattern of a gown may end only with our lives.
    William Hazlitt (1778–1830)

    If there is a price to pay for the privilege of spending the early years of child rearing in the driver’s seat, it is our reluctance, our inability, to tolerate being demoted to the backseat. Spurred by our success in programming our children during the preschool years, we may find it difficult to forgo in later states the level of control that once afforded us so much satisfaction.
    Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)