Developer | Don Nelson Dick Pick TRW |
---|---|
Written in | Assembly language |
Initial release | 1965 (GIRLS), 1973 (Reality Operating System) |
Marketing target | Business data processing |
Available in | English |
Platforms | Solaris, Linux, AIX, Windows Server (2000 and up) |
Kernel type | Monolithic (or none for operating environment implementations) |
Default user interface | Text-based |
License | Proprietary |
The Pick Operating System, also known as the Pick System or simply Pick, [1] is a demand-paged, multi-user, virtual memory, time-sharing computer operating system based around a MultiValue database. Pick is used primarily for business data processing. It is named after one of its developers, Dick Pick. [2] [3]
The term "Pick system" has also come to be used as the general name of all operating environments which employ this multivalued database and have some implementation of Pick/BASIC and ENGLISH/Access queries. Although Pick started on a variety of minicomputers, the system and its various implementations eventually spread to a large assortment of microcomputers, personal computers, [4] and mainframe computers. [5]
The Pick Operating System is an integrated computing platform with a database, query and procedural operation languages, peripheral and multi-user management, and BASIC programming capabilities. Its database utilizes a hash-file system, enabling efficient data storage and retrieval by organizing data into dynamic associative arrays managed by associative files.
Data within the Pick system is organized into a hierarchical structure of accounts, dictionaries, files, and sub-files based on a hash-table model with linear probing. This structure comprises variable-length records, fields, and sub-fields, with unique naming conventions that reflect its multivalued database characteristics. Records are identified by unique keys that facilitate direct access to their storage locations. [6]
Initially constrained by the era's technological limitations, the Pick system's capacity has expanded over time, removing earlier record-size limits and introducing dynamic file allocation and B-tree indexing to enhance data management capabilities.
The Pick database operates without explicit data types, [6] treating all data as character strings, which places the onus of data integrity on the applications developed for the system. This flexibility allows Pick to store data in non-first-normal-form, avoiding the need for join operations by containing all related data within single records. This approach can optimize storage and retrieval efficiency for specific kinds of datasets.
Pick was originally implemented as the Generalized Information Retrieval Language System (GIRLS) on an IBM System/360 in 1965 by Don Nelson and Dick Pick at TRW, whose government contract for the Cheyenne Helicopter project required developing a database. [5] It was supposed to be used by the U.S. Army to control the inventory of Cheyenne helicopter parts. [7]
Pick was subsequently commercially released in 1973 by Microdata Corporation (and its British distributor CMC) as the Reality Operating System now supplied by Northgate Information Solutions. [8] McDonnell Douglas bought Microdata in 1981. [5]
The first Microdata implementation, called the Reality, came only with a procedural language (PROC), and a query language (ENGLISH). In 1975, Ken Simms of Pick Systems created an implementation of Dartmouth BASIC for the Reality, with numerous syntax extensions for smart terminal interface and database operations, and it was called Data/BASIC. At or near the same time, SMI of Chicago, created an extended procedural language and called it RPL.
PROC, the procedure language was provided for executing scripts. A SQL-style language called ENGLISH allowed database retrieval and reporting, but not updates (although later, the ENGLISH command "REFORMAT" allowed updates on a batch basis). ENGLISH did not fully allow manipulating the 3-dimensional multivalued structure of data records. Nor did it directly provide common relational capabilities such as joins. This was because powerful data dictionary redefinitions for a field allowed joins via the execution of a calculated lookup in another file. The system included a spooler. A simple text editor for file-system records was provided, but the editor was only suitable [6] for system maintenance, and could not lock records, so most applications were written with the other tools such as Batch, RPL, or the BASIC language so as to ensure data validation and allow record locking.
By the early 1980s observers saw the Pick Operating System as a strong competitor to Unix. [9] BYTE in 1984 stated that "Pick is simple and powerful, and it seems to be efficient and reliable, too ... because it works well as a multiuser system, it's probably the most cost-effective way to use an XT". [10] Dick Pick founded Pick & Associates, later renamed Pick Systems, then Raining Data, then (as of 2011 [update] ) TigerLogic, and finally Rocket Software. He licensed "Pick" to a large variety of manufacturers and vendors who have produced different "flavors" of Pick. The database flavors sold by TigerLogic were D3, mvBase, and mv Enterprise. Those previously sold by IBM under the "U2" umbrella are known as UniData and UniVerse. Rocket Software purchased IBM's U2 family of products in 2010 and Tiger Logic's D3 and mvBase family of products in 2014. In 2021, Rocket acquired OpenQM and jBASE as well.
Dick Pick died at age 56 due to stroke complications in October 1994. [3] [11]
Pick Systems often became tangled in licensing litigation, and devoted relatively little effort to marketing [12] [13] and improving its software. Subsequent ports of Pick to other platforms generally offered the same tools and capabilities for many years, usually with relatively minor improvements and simply renamed (for example, Data/BASIC became Pick/BASIC and ENGLISH became ACCESS). [6] Licensees often developed proprietary variations and enhancements; for example, Microdata created an input processor called ScreenPro.
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The Pick database was licensed to roughly three dozen licensees between 1978 and 1984. Application-compatible implementations evolved into derivatives and also inspired similar systems.
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