ASSIST (computing)
| Company type | Software |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer software, Education |
| Founded | early 1970s |
| Founder | Graham Campbell, John Mashey |
| Headquarters | State College , United States |
| Products | Assembler and interpreter for IBM System/370 |
ASSIST (short for Assembler System for Student Instruction and Systems Teaching) is an assembler and interpreter compatible with the IBM System/370, created in the early 1970s at Penn State University by Graham Campbell and John Mashey, along with contributions from student collaborators.
During the late 1960s, as computer science programs grew rapidly, universities encountered a surge in students needing rapid program turnaround times, contrasting with the batch processing demands typical of professional environments. Students required quick compilation and execution of brief programs, often containing frequent syntax mistakes, thus emphasizing minimal overhead rather than advanced optimization.
Modeled after the success of WATFIV, a FORTRAN compiler tailored for student use operating within dedicated "fast-batch" partitions under strict time constraints, ASSIST was designed to meet similar educational requirements. It complemented other student-focused tools such as PL/C, which also aimed to facilitate efficient learning experiences.
Enhancements and wider adoption of ASSIST were driven by institutions including Northern Illinois University (through Wilson Singletary and Ross Overbeek) and the University of Tennessee (Charles Hughes and Charles Pfleeger). By 1978, these efforts had resulted in ASSIST being utilized at more than 200 universities.
In the 1980s, Northern Illinois University introduced ASSIST/I (Interactive) for IBM PCs. This version was notably employed by John Ehrman to instruct assembly language programming during SHARE (computing) conferences up to at least 2011.
On March 1, 1998, Penn State designated ASSIST as freeware, releasing it for free distribution according to its final release documentation.
The original ASSIST software continues to see occasional use; a demonstration in 2017 illustrated its ability to assemble source code and execute within an MVS 3.8 emulation environment on a laptop. Assembly programmers from that period optimized memory usage by employing high-order bits as flags, necessitating compatibility modes when IBM transitioned from 24-bit addressing to 31-bit, and subsequently to 64-bit addressing modes.