JOSS (an acronym for JOHNNIAC Open Shop System), was one of the very first interactive, time sharing programming languages. The JOHNNIAC or John (v. ... (Type of Multi-Tasking Operating Systems) Time Sharing system is a type of Multi-Tasking Operating Systems which operates in an interactive mode with a quick response time. ...

JOSS I, developed by J. Clifford Shaw at RAND was first implemented, in beta form, on the JOHNNIAC computer in May 1963. The full implementation was deployed in January 1964, supporting 5 terminals and the final version, JOSS In, supporting 10 terminals, was deployed in January 1965. The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit global policy think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces. ... The JOHNNIAC or John (v. ... Year 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Also Nintendo emulator: 1964 (emulator). ... Year 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the 1965 Gregorian calendar. ...

JOSS was written in a symbolic assembly language called EasyFox (E and F in the US military's phonetic alphabet of that time). EasyFox was also developed by Cliff Shaw.

JOSS was dubbed "The Helpful Assistant" and is renowned for its conversational user interface. Originally green/black typewriter ribbons were used in its terminals with green being used for user input and black for the computer's response. Any command that was not understood elicited the response "Eh?".

JOSS II, was developed by Charles L. Baker, Joseph W. Smith, Irwin D. Greenwald, and G. Edward Bryan for the PDP-6 computer between 1964 and February 1966. The PDP-6 (Programmed Data Processor-6) was a computer model developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1963. ... Also Nintendo emulator: 1964 (emulator). ... Year 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the 1966 Gregorian calendar. ...

Many variants of JOSS were developed and implemented on a variety of platforms. Some of these variants remained very similar to the original: TELCOMP, FOCAL, CAL, CITRAN, ISIS, PIL/I, JEAN (ICL); while others, such as MUMPS, developed in distinctive directions. TELCOMP was a programming language developed at Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN) in about 1965 and in use until at least 1972. ... An interpreted programming language resembling JOSS. Stands for Formula Calculator. ... CAL (Conversational Algebraic Language) was a programming language and system designed and developed by Butler Lampson at Berkeley in 1967. ... CITRAN was a dialect of the JOSS programming language which was used at Caltech in the late 60s and early 70s. ...

Sample program

 1.1 Demand p,q. 1.2 Stop if q<0 or r(q,2)=0. 1.3 Set a=1. 1.4 Do part 2 while q>1 and a~=0. 1.5 Type a in form 3. 1.6 Stop. 2.1 Do part 20. 2.1 Do part 11 if p<0. 2.2 Do part 12 if p>=q. 2.3 Do part 13 if p=0. 2.4 Done if a=0. 2.5 Set p=p/4 while r(p,4)=0. 2.6 Do part 14 if r(p,2)=0. 2.7 Do part 20. 2.8 Set a=-a if r(p,4)=r(q,4)=3. 2.9 Set s=p, p=q, q=s. 2.95 Do part 20. 11.1 Set a=-a if r(q,4)=3. 11.2 Set p=|p|. 11.3 Do part 20. 12.1 Set p=r(p,q). 12.2 Do part 20. 13.1 Set a=0, p=1, q=1. 14.1 Set a=-a if r(q,8)=3 or r(q,8)=5. 14.2 Set p=p/2. 20.1 Type p, q in form 1 if a=1. 20.2 Type p, q in form 2 if a=-1. Form 1: " L(%.0f,%.0f) =" Form 2: " -L(%.0f,%.0f) =" Form 3: " %.0fn" 

Note that this is not an original sample, but rather one from a modern simulator, there are some syntactic differences from the original JOSS language.

References

"JOSS Users' Reference Manual", R.L. Clark, Report F-1535/9, RAND Corp (Jan 1975); Sammet 1969, pp.217-226.