SPITBOL 360

What is SPITBOL 360?

SPITBOL 360 is an implementation of the SNOBOL4 programming language for use on IBM 360 compatible computers. SPITBOL 360 was the first true compiler for SNOBOL4 and is an incredibly clever work of assembly language.

SPITBOL 360 was originally distributed under license, for a fee, from 1971 until 1984 when it was superseded by SPITBOL 370.

Effective November 2001, SPITBOL 360 will be distributed under the General Public License (GPL), for NO fee.

Why re-release a 30-year old compiler?

Here are three good reasons:

  1. Preservation. SPITBOL 360 was a great achievement and it should be preserved.
  2. Education. In the past people who had access to the SPITBOL 360 source read and learned from it. Now the source will be available to all.
  3. Utility. SPITBOL 360 still works! A new generation of mainframe software users (e.g., Hercules users) will find it useful.

What systems does it run on?

Hardware

SPITBOL 360 is a "24 bit address" application that runs on any 360 compatible computer, including 360 descendants made by IBM and other "plug compatible mainframe" manufacturers. SPITBOL 360 also runs on the Hercules 390 emulator.

Operating Systems

To the best of our knowledge SPITBOL 360 runs on all standard IBM mainframe operating systems, including MVT, MVS, and MVS/XA. It also ran on VM in the past, but this distribution is geared toward installation on MVx systems and the installation procedures may need to be tweaked for VM.

Documentation

The original SPITBOL 360 manual and newsletters have been scanned and are available in PDF: Click here to download the SPITBOL 360 Manual. This PDF file is just over 4MB and is NOT included in any of the source distributions below!

Click here to download the SPITBOL 360 Readme file, which describes the installation procedures for SPITBOL 360.

Distribution Files

There are three distribution flavors of SPITBOL 360:

  1. ASCII source files only, for those who just want to study the compiler source code:

    Click here to download the SPITBOL 360 source files in a ZIP file.

    Click here to download the SPITBOL 360 source files in a GZIP'ed TAR file.

  2. EBCDIC files, ready for installation on an IBM 360 compatible computer:

    Click here to download the SPITBOL 360 distribution in a ZIP file.

    Click here to download the SPITBOL 360 distribution files in a GZIP'ed TAR file.

  3. AWS tape file for easy Hercules installation:

    Click here to download the SPITBOL 360 AWS tape file distribution in a ZIP file.

    Click here to download the SPITBOL 360 AWS tape file distribution in a GZIP'ed TAR file.

ENJOY!

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Robert Dewar and Ken Belcher for allowing me to re-release SPITBOL 360 under the GPL for all to use and study.

Links

For information about the General Public License, visit The Free Software Foundation's web site.

For information about the Hercules 390 emulator, visit the Hercules home page.

Contact Information

Questions? Contact Bob Goldberg at this spam-blocking address:

bobg AT snobol4 DOT com

Replies will be issued in SPITBOL time.

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