[COFF] Earliest COBOL Compilers

[segaloco via COFF <coff@tuhs.org>]

Good morning, I was reading recently on the earliest days of COBOL and from what I could gather, the picture (heh) regarding compilers looks something like this:

- RCA introduced the "Narrator" compiler for the 501[1] in November, 1960 (although it had been demonstrated in August of that year)

- Sperry Rand introduced a COBOL compiler running under the BOSS operating system[2] sometime in late 1960 or early 1961 (according to Wikipedia which then cites [3]).

First, I had some trouble figuring out the loading environment on the RCA 501, would this have been a "set the start address on the console, load cards/PPT, and go" sort of setup, or was there an OS/monitor involved?

And for the latter, there is a UNIVAC III COBOL Programmer's Guide (U-3389) cited in [2] but thus far I haven't found this online.  Does anyone know if COBOL was also on the UNIVAC II (or I) and/or if any distinct COBOL documents from this era of UNIVAC survive anywhere?

- Matt G.

[1] - http://bitsavers.org/pdf/rca/501/RCA501_COBOL_Narrator_Dec60.pdf

[2] - http://bitsavers.org/pdf/univac/univac3/U-3521_BOSS_III_Jan63.pdf

[3] - Williams, Kathleen Broome (10 November 2012). Grace Hopper: Admiral of the Cyber Sea.