Warren G. Simmons papers.

Collection

Identifier: CBI 204

Staff Only

Scope and Content Note

Collection contains correspondence, reports, notes, printouts, mailing and telephone lists and other reference material relating to COBOL, the United States Steel Corporation and the Conference on Data Systems Languages (CODASYL). Among the documents are: Report to the CODASYL COBOL Committee: COBOL Extensions to Handle Data Bases, a report prepared by the Data Base Task Group (1968), CODASYL Symposium on COBOL Compiler Building Techniques, proceedings (1972), The History of the CODASYL Data Description Language Committee, as well as several drafts of Simmons' personal anecdotal memories of his work with CODASYL and U.S. Steel. The collection also includes news clippings about CODASYL, COBOL and Admiral Grace Hopper.

Dates

1953-2002

Language of Materials

English

Access to materials:

Access to the collection is unrestricted.

Copyright:

The Charles Babbage Institute holds the copyright to all materials in the collection, except for items covered by a prior copyright (such as published materials). Researchers may quote from the collection under the fair use provisions of the copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).

Biographical Note

Simmons became one of the first programmers at the United States Steel Corporation when it installed a UNIVAC I in 1954. He became active in the company's efforts to standardize its programming efforts at its various divisions. Simmons was active in various capacities in CODASYL starting in 1960. He served on the Executive Committee as secretary, as well as chairman of the Planning Committee and the List Processing Task Force, which later became the Data Base Task Group.