Les 50 ans des CACM (eal Ingenious New Symbolic Optimizer)

Les parodies étaient fréquentes. En voici une extraite du
Communications of the ACM
Volume 1 , Issue 10 (Oct. 1958)

R.I.N.S.O.
(Real Ingenious New Symbolic Optimizer)
Editor's Note: The following parody on the S.O.A.P. System is reprinted from the September 1958 issue
of the Journal of Machine Accounting, Systems and Management, through the kind permission of
the editor, Mr. Charles Johnson.
RINSO represents the ultimate sophisticated optimizing routine for use with the recently announced
699 Electronuclear Computing Machine. The routine allows any- untrained person with an I.Q. of 40
or more to program any problem capable of definition by the human brain. Logic is taken care of by
RINSO.
With RINSO, it is not necessary for the programmer to know arithmetic or any advanced mathematics.
Nor must he confine himself to the use of English in his choice of symbols. The routine is capable of
interpreting symbols in any of the 98 languages officially recognized by the United Nations, as well as
in Uto-Aztecan and Quarani.
The RINSO deck consists of three cards, one of which may be thrown away if the computer is equipped
with the floating square root device. The only restriction involving the program is that it be written
on a sheet of white paper measuring not more than 4' x 6'
To prepare the machine, first drop three RINSO cards into the slot marked "THINK" on the console
and place the program (s) sheet on the moving conveyor belt. Set the alpha-numeric console switches
to "ANALYZE" and push the button marked "GO".
The output of RINSO consists of a printed form from the 499 Accounting Machine Listing 1) the
program steps in Basic English, 2) an analysis of the program in the light of present-day computing
techniques and 3) a statement of the kind and quantity of raw data necessary to make the 699 System
economically feasible.
Copies of the RINSO deck may be obtained by writing to: Programmer Number 4096, Ivory Tower,
Bellevue Hospital, New York, N. Y.