Recent developments in machine‐independent job control languages

The paper gives a general survey of recent developments in the field of Job Control Languages. Three high‐level portable job control languages (UNIQUE, GCL and ABLE) are presented in outline, and their merits and disadvantages are discussed. The approaches of the MU5 and of single‐language machines are discussed together with the question that these pose: ‘Is a JCL as such really necessary?’ In conclusion particular reference is made to the question of standardization and to the continuing work in this field.