IITRAN

IITRAN is a discontinued programming language created in the mid-1960s. It was designed as a first language for students, and its syntax resembled that of PL/I. The name derives from Illinois Institute of Technology, where it was developed.

The IITRAN language was initially implemented on an IBM System/360 DOS system. In the early 1970s, the IBM platform proved to be too small for the IIT environment and the hardware was upgraded. A new version was developed for the Univac 1108 platform. The language itself did not change but with the new hardware, a new implementation of the IITran software was developed.

IITRAN was designed and developed in response to the increasing demand for a computer language which would meet the following specifications:

  1. It should be clear, concise, and easily learned, even for those who have had no previous experience with computers or mathematics;
  2. It should bear as close a resemblance as possible to the English language;
  3. It should be free of awkward restrictions and limitations;
  4. It should be consistent with mathematical and logical foundations;
  5. It should allow processing of a great number of individual programs in a very short time;
  6. It should serve as a computational tool for students of science and engineering;
  7. It should process a clear, easily understood, set of diagnostic error messages.

(Bauer, p. V)

There was a Spanish language version of IITRAN at IIT as well. It utilized Spanish keywords rather than English ones. For example, the keyword read was replaced by leer.

Bibliography
  • IITRAN / 360: Self-Instructional Manual and Text, Bauer, Charles R. et al., Addison Wesley Publishing, 1967.
  • The IITRAN Programming Language, R. Dewar et al., CACM 12(10):569-575 (Oct 1969).


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