Filetab facts for kids
Filetab was a special computer language used a lot in businesses during the 1960s and 1970s. It was based on something called a decision table, which is like a chart that helps computers make choices. It made it easier to create reports and handle information.
How Filetab Started
Filetab has a long and interesting past. It was first designed in the late 1960s. It came from an older program called DETAB. The National Computing Centre (NCC) developed Filetab. It was first used on computers made by ICL. These computers ran on systems like GEORGE 2/3 and VME. But Filetab was later used on many other computer systems too.
A person named Tom Barnard was the main designer of Filetab. He created an earlier program called LITA (LIst and TAbulate). He made LITA for a company called Morgan Crucible between 1965 and 1968. Tom worked as a programmer on an ICL 1902 computer.
The main goal of LITA was to create simple reports quickly. Before LITA, people often had to write complex programs. These programs were like instructions for a computer. LITA made it much simpler. It was similar to how old machines called punched card tabulators worked. These machines used special cards with holes to process data. LITA only needed a few cards to tell it what information to use and how to show it. It could set up headings, sort information, and add totals.
Later, the NCC faced money problems. In 2009, they sold the rights to Filetab. A new company called "NCC Filetab Limited" bought these rights.
Different Kinds of Filetab
Over the years, many different versions of Filetab were made for various computers. Here are some of them:
- TABN for ICL 1900 series mainframes (large, powerful computers)
- TAB-360 for IBM System/360 (also known as DETAB-360)
- UNITAB for UNIVAC computers
- HTAB for Honeywell computers
- TAB-11 for RSTS/E on PDP-11 computers
- FTL6 for ICT 1900 series
- DTPL for ICT 1900 series – a bit different from FTL6
- RPL-11 for RT-11, RSTS/E, RSX-11 on PDP-11 computers
- RPL-3 for IBM System/3 computers
- Filetab-D for x86 and PDP-11 computers
- FPL - Fast programming Language. This version was made in 1986 for IBM PCs. It was written by Kevin Powis.
- Rapid-Expert and expertGenius, which added more features for Microsoft Windows, Unix, and OpenVMS systems.
- RapidGen compiler and tools to convert old FILETAB programs for Windows, Unix, and OpenVMS.
In 2001, a version for Linux computers was created. This version was free to use. However, it was not "Open Source" in the way many people expected. This caused some discussion in the Open Source Software Community.
