computer science

SCRIPT (markup)

SCRIPT (markup) is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand SCRIPT (markup) rather than just read about it. In short: SCRIPT, any of a series of text markup languages starting with Script under Control Program-67/Cambridge Monitor System (CP-67/CMS) and Script/370 under Virtual Machine Facility/370 (VM/370) and the Time Sharing Option (TSO) of OS/VS2; the current version, SCRIPT/VS, is part of IBM's Document Composition Facility (DCF) for IBM z/VM and z/OS systems. SCRIPT was developed for CP-67/CMS by Stuart Madnick at MIT, succee…

Key takeaways

SCRIPT (markup) belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect SCRIPT (markup) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of SCRIPT (markup) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

SCRIPT, any of a series of text markup languages starting with Script under Control Program-67/Cambridge Monitor System (CP-67/CMS) and Script/370 under Virtual Machine Facility/370 (VM/370) and the Time Sharing Option (TSO) of OS/VS2; the current version, SCRIPT/VS, is part of IBM's Document Composition Facility (DCF) for IBM z/VM and z/OS systems. SCRIPT was developed for CP-67/CMS by Stuart Madnick at MIT, succeeding CTSS RUNOFF. SCRIPT is a procedural markup language. Inline commands called control words, indicated by a period in the first column of a logical line, describe the desired appearance of the formatted text. SCRIPT originally provided a 2PASS option to allow text to refer to variables defined later in the text, but subsequent versions allowed more than two passes.

History In 1968 "IBM contracted Stuart Madnick of MIT to write a simple document preparation ..." to run on CP/67. He modeled it on MIT's CTSS RUNOFF. In 1974, William Dwyer at Yale University ported the CP-67 version of Script to the Time Sharing Option (TSO) of OS/360 under the name NSCRIPT. The University of Waterloo rewrote and extended NSCRIPT as Waterloo SCRIPT, also in 1974, making it available for free to CMS and TSO users for several releases before eventually charging for new releases. By 1978, IBM's Script/370, running on VM/CMS, had evolved into Document Composition Facility (DCF), supporting SCRIPT/VS on CMS, DOS/VS, OS/VS1 and OS/VS2, and supported the IBM 3800. In addition, there was a PC DOS/MS-DOS version called SCRIPT/PC.

Native SCRIPT control words Native Script control begin with a period and have a space prior to operands. They normally begin in column 1, but you may code multiple control words, separated by semicolons, on a single line. The description and table below refer to selected control words in DCF; older versions are similar. SCRIPT allows space units in control words to be specified in a number of units including inches, centimeters, millimeters, picas, ciceros, m-spaces, or device units (pels at the current device resolution). Vertical space units are assumed to be lines unless otherwise specified.

SCRIPT macros Script includes a facility for user-defined macros and for automatically reading a profile containing macro definitions and other commands. Several packages for semantic tagging, including GML and EasyScript, are built on top of this facility.

Generalized Markup Language

IBM's Generalized Markup Language (GML) is a descriptive markup layer describing the logical structure of a document. Both SCRIPT/VS and the GML Starter Set are part of IBM's Document Composition Facility (DCF), used in the System/370 platform and successors. The tag sets of the BookMaster and BookManager BUILD/MVS products are built on a foundation of the GML Starter Set syntax and implementation. The Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) is a descendant of GML. While DCF does not directly handle SGML, there is an SGML translator available as a separate product.

EasyScript EasyScript is a set of macro definitions and profiles included with Script/370 Version 3 that implements a primitive version of GML. Tags are variables whose values have been set to control words, allowing multiple tags in a single line.

.ez on &P.This is a paragraph. &N1.First item &N2.First subitem &N2.Second subitem &N1.Second item

is roughly equivalent to This is a paragraph

First item First subitem Second subitem Second item

GML Starter Set (GMLSS) The GML Starter Set (GMLSS) is a set of macro definitions and profiles that implements a set of tags that has more of a semantic orientation than the raw Script/VS control words. Tags begin with a colon and end with a period, and may contain attributes between the name and the closing period; a line may contain multiple tags.

BookMaster Bookmaster is an IBM product, "designed for high-volume in-house publishing applications", that extends the GML Starter Set of DCF. It consists of "a rich set of GML vocabulary for creating complex document layouts." Bookmaster runs under the z/VM and z/OS operating systems. Although IBM no longer supports BookMaster, there is software to convert old BookMaster documents to HTML.

BookManager BookManager is a family of products for producing and reading online books. BookManager BUILD/MVS and BookManager BUILD/VM are layered on top of SCRIPT and BookMaster and can run on z/VM and z/OS. Other BookManager BUILD products for generating text run on Linux, Windows or OS/2 and convert files produced by various word processors to BookManager format. BookManager Read products for viewing text run on a variety of systems. BookManager BookServer is a multi-platform system to "serve your electronic books to HTML browsers." BookManager electronic documents typically have filenames ending with the extension .BOO. IBM offers several no charge tools to work with and read BookManager documents including a reader/viewer called IBM Softcopy Reader. An independent developer, Kev Bowling, created and released software that uses IBM's BookManager code libraries to convert BookManager documents to PDF.

See also Markup language Typesetting Runoff Scribe (markup language)

References

External links DCF: SCRIPT/VS Language Reference. IBM Corporation. 1999.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)SH35-0070-07 DCF V1R4.0: SCRIPT/VS Text Programmer's Guide. IBM Corporation. 1999.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)SH35-0069-07 "CTSS PROGRAMMER'S GUIDE Section AH.9.01, 12/66"

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with SCRIPT (markup)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what SCRIPT (markup) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to SCRIPT (markup) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about SCRIPT (markup) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of SCRIPT (markup)

In research: SCRIPT (markup) appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses SCRIPT (markup) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: SCRIPT (markup) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics IBM mainframe software, IBM software, Markup languages, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for SCRIPT (markup) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study SCRIPT (markup) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what SCRIPT (markup) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain SCRIPT (markup) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is SCRIPT (markup) in simple terms?

Why does SCRIPT (markup) matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study SCRIPT (markup)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on SCRIPT (markup).