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The paper describes how a benchmark was constructed to assist in the selection of a general purpose interactive computing system. Because no existing user programs were available, a ‘synthetic’ program was constructed to load the different parts of the system, and the program embodied into a job script with edit, compile and run phases. The calculation of the program and job parameters were successfully derived from the operational requirements. The problems of running the benchmark and analysing the results are also described. The results of the exercise contributed significantly to obtaining a satisfactory system and show a reasonable correlation with subsequent system usage.

Most installations provide a program to assist in drawing stylized diagrams which can illustrate structures, relationships and flows. The DRAUGHTSMAN program was written to overcome shortcomings in earlier examples of this type. Firstly, drawing movements can be specified in relative terms, and positions on the diagram can be labelled, giving the advantages of flexibility for subsequent modification equivalent to those of relative addressing over absolute addressing in programming. Secondly, the program will, unless instructed otherwise, make its own selection of a reasonable paper size and orientation. Thirdly, the inclusion of text within boxes and along lines is flexible and unrestricted; this is combined with a wide range of drawing styles. A specification of the drawing language is given and an illustrative example provided.