SCRIPT (markup)
Markup language for IBM computers
title: "SCRIPT (markup)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["ibm-software", "typesetting-software", "markup-languages", "ibm-mainframe-software"] description: "Markup language for IBM computers" topic_path: "technology/programming-languages" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCRIPT_(markup)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Markup language for IBM computers ::
SCRIPT, any of a series of text markup languages starting with Script{{cite manual | title = CMS SCRIPT User's Manual | publisher = IBM | id = GH20-0860 | title = Control Program-67/Cambridge Monitor System (CP-67/CMS) Version 3 Program Number 3600-05.2.005 User's Guide | chapter = SCRIPT | version = First Edition | publisher = IBM | date = October 1970 | url = http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/360/cp67/GH20-0859-0_CP-67_Version_3_Users_Guide_Oct1970.pdf | id = GH20-0859-0 | pages = 143[127]–177[163] | mode = cs2 under Control Program-67/Cambridge Monitor System (CP-67/CMS) and Script/370{{cite manual | title = SCRIPT/370 Text Processing Facility Under Virtual Machine Facility/370 (VM/370) Program Description/Operations Manual Program Number 5796-PAF | version = First Edition | publisher = IBM | date = November 1972 | url = http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/370/CMS/SH20-1114-0_SCRIPT_370_Text_Processing_Facility_Nov72.pdf | id = SH20-1114-0 | mode = cs2 under Virtual Machine Facility/370 (VM/370) and the Time Sharing Option (TSO) of OS/VS2; the current version, SCRIPT/VS,{{cite manual |title = DCF V1R4.0: SCRIPT/VS User's Guide |version = Third Edition |publisher = IBM |date = May 1999 |url = http://publibfp.dhe.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/dsmu2m00/CCONTENTS |id = S544-3191-02 |title = DCF: SCRIPT/VS Language Reference |version = Eighth Edition |publisher = IBM |date = September 1998 |url = http://publibfp.dhe.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/dsml7m00/EDITION?DT=19990324064833 |id = SH35-0070-07 |title = DCF V1R4.0: SCRIPT/VS Text Programmer's Guide |version = Eighth Edition |publisher = IBM |date = August 1999 |url = http://publibfp.dhe.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/dsmp7m00/CCONTENTS |id = SH35-0069-07 |mode = cs2 |title = Document Composition Facility and Document Library Facility General Information Program Numbers 5748-XX9 5748-XXE |version = Eleventh Edition |publisher = IBM |date = January 1991 |url = http://publibfp.dhe.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/DSM02M00/CCONTENTS?SHELF=dsm0pa01&DN=GH20-9158-10&DT=19910521163021 |id = GH20-9158-10
SCRIPT is a procedural markup language. Inline commands called control words, indicated by a period in the first column of a logical line, describe the desired appearance of the formatted text. SCRIPT originally provided a 2PASS option to allow text to refer to variables defined later in the text, but subsequent versions allowed more than two passes.
History
In 1968 "IBM contracted Stuart Madnick of MIT to write a simple document preparation ..." to run on CP/67.{{cite journal |title=SCRIPT, An On-Line Manuscript Processing System |year=1968|doi=10.1109/TEWS.1968.4322339|s2cid=51633921|last1=Madnick|first1=Stuart E.|last2=Moulton|first2=Allen|journal=IEEE Transactions on Engineering Writing and Speech|volume=11|issue=2|pages=92–100}} He modeled it on MIT's CTSS RUNOFF.{{cite web |title=What does sCrIPT mean? |quote=SCRIPT was developed for CP-67/CMS by Stuart Madnick at MIT, succeeding CTSS RUNOFF. |url=https://www.definitions.net/definition/sCrIPT}}{{cite web |title=History of UNIX Manpages |url=https://manpages.bsd.lv/history.html |quote=1967: SCRIPT (Stuart Madnick). In 1967, Madnick ported the RUNOFF code to the IBM CP67/CMS at IBM as SCRIPT. The documentation of SCRIPT explicitly ...}} In 1974, William Dwyer at Yale University ported the CP-67 version of Script to the Time Sharing Option (TSO) of OS/360 under the name NSCRIPT.{{cite book | title = User's Guide and Catalog of Programs | publisher = SHARE PROGRAM LIBRARY AGENCY | year = 1977 | id = 360D-03.5.008 | page = 24 | url = http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/share/SHARE_PgmCatalog_Jan77.pdf | title = Introduction to SCRIPT | date = November 29, 1978 | publisher = University of Waterloo Computing Centre | mode = cs2 also in 1974, making it available for free to CMS and TSO users for several releases before eventually charging for new releases.
By 1978, IBM's Script/370, running on VM/CMS, had evolved into Document Composition Facility (DCF),{{cite book | title = Document Composition Facility: User's Guide Program Number S748-XX9 | id = SH20-9161-0 | date = July 1978 | edition = first | url = http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/370/DCF/SH20-9161-0_Document_Composition_Facility_Users_Guide_Jul78.pdf | mode = cs2 supporting SCRIPT/VS on CMS, DOS/VS, OS/VS1 and OS/VS2, and supported the IBM 3800. In addition, there was a PC/MS-DOS version called SCRIPT/PC.{{cite book | title = SCRIPT/PC -Book 1 How to Use | id = 1502414 | series = Personal Computer Productivity Series | edition = First | date = January 1984 | url = http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/pc/apps/Script_PC/1502414_SCRIPT_PC_Book_1_How_to_Use_Jan84.pdf | mode = cs2
Native SCRIPT control words
Native Script control begin with a period and have a space prior to operands. They normally begin in column 1, but you may code multiple control words, separated by semicolons, on a single line.
The description and table below refer to selected control words in DCF; older versions are similar.
SCRIPT allows space units in control words to be specified in a number of units including inches, centimeters, millimeters, picas, ciceros, m-spaces, or device units (pels at the current device resolution). Vertical space units are assumed to be lines unless otherwise specified. ::data[format=table]
| control word | function | example |
|---|---|---|
.sp | Inserts blank vertical space | |
.ce | Centers following lines | |
.ez | Controls EasyScript | |
.im | Imbeds a file at the current location | |
.ju | Turn on/off justify mode | |
.rh | Specify running head information | |
.df | Define a named font | |
.bf | Specify font for following text | |
.se | Assigns a value to a variable symbol | |
| :: |
SCRIPT macros
Script includes a facility for user-defined macros and for automatically reading a profile containing macro definitions and other commands. Several packages for semantic tagging, including GML and EasyScript, are built on top of this facility.
Generalized Markup Language
Main article: Generalized Markup Language
IBM's Generalized Markup Language (GML) is a descriptive markup layer describing the logical structure of a document. Both SCRIPT/VS and the GML Starter Set are part of IBM's Document Composition Facility (DCF), used in the System/370 platform and successors. The tag sets of the BookMaster{{cite web | title = 5688-015 IBM Host Publishing Systems BookMaster R4 | id = 5688-015 | url = http://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=dd&subtype=sm&htmlfid=897/ENUS5688-015 | access-date = August 4, 2021 | work = IBM United States Sales Manual | date = 5 August 2008 | publisher = IBM | title = BookMaster V1R4.0 Bookshelf product on Printing and Publishing CD | url = http://publibfp.dhe.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/Shelves/edf01a02 | archive-url = https://archive.today/20130628042800/http://publibfp.dhe.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/Shelves/edf01a02 | archive-date = June 28, 2013 | url-status = dead | publisher = IBM and BookManager BUILD/MVS{{cite web | title = BookManager READ/MVS and BUILD/MVS V1R3.0 Bookshelf | url = http://publibfp.dhe.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/Shelves/eoxeoy07 | archive-url = https://archive.today/20130628042624/http://publibfp.dhe.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/Shelves/eoxeoy07 | archive-date = June 28, 2013 | url-status = dead | publisher = IBM products are built on a foundation of the GML Starter Set syntax and implementation.
The Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) is a descendant of GML. While DCF does not directly handle SGML, there is an SGML translator available as a separate product.
EasyScript
EasyScript is a set of macro definitions and profiles included with Script/370{{cite manual | author = IBM | title = SCRIPT/370 Text Processing Facility Under Virtual Machine Facility/370 (VM/370) Program Description/Operations Manual Program Number 5796-PAF | version = First Edition | publisher = IBM | date = November 1972 | url = http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/370/CMS/SH20-1114-0_SCRIPT_370_Text_Processing_Facility_Nov72.pdf | id = SH20-1114-0 | author = IBM | title = SCRIPT/370 Version 3 User's Guide Program Number: 5796úPHL | version = First Edition | publisher = IBM | date = September 1976 | url = http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/370/CMS/SH20-1857-0_SCRIPT_370_Version_3_Users_Guide_Sep76.pdf | id = SH20-1857-0 | mode = cs2 | title = SCRIPT/370 Text Processing Facility Under Virtual Machine Facility/370 (VM/370) Systems Guide Program Number 5796-PAF | publisher = IBM | url = http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/370/CMS/LY20-0762-0_SCRIPT_370_Text_Processing_Facility_Systems_Guide_Nov72.pdf | id = LY20-0762-0 | mode = cs2 that implements a primitive version of GML. Tags are variables whose values have been set to control words, allowing multiple tags in a single line.
.ez on &P.This is a paragraph. &N1.First item &N2.First subitem &N2.Second subitem &N1.Second item
is roughly equivalent to
This is a paragraph
- First item
- First subitem
- Second subitem
- Second item
GML Starter Set (GMLSS)
The GML Starter Set (GMLSS){{cite manual | title = IBM Document Composition Facility: Generalized Markup Language Starter Set User's Guide | publisher = IBM | id = SH20-9186-07 | date = January 1991 | edition = Eighth | mode = cs2 | title = IBM Document Composition Facility: Generalized Markup Language Starter Set Reference | publisher = IBM | id = SH20-9187-06 | date = January 1991 | edition = Seventh | mode = cs2 is a set of macro definitions and profiles that implements{{cite manual | title = Document Composition Facility Generalized Markup Language Implementation Guide | id = SH35-0050-02 | date = March 1985 | edition = Third | url = http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/370/DCF/SH35-0050-2_Document_Composition_Facility_Generalized_Markup_Language_Implementation_Guide_Rel_3_Mar85.pdf | publisher = IBM | mode = cs2 a set of tags that has more of a semantic orientation than the raw Script/VS control words. Tags begin with a colon and end with a period, and may contain attributes between the name and the closing period; a line may contain multiple tags.
BookMaster
Bookmaster is an IBM product, "designed for high-volume in-house publishing applications", that extends the GML Starter Set of DCF. It consists of "a rich set of GML vocabulary for creating complex document layouts." Bookmaster runs under the z/VM and z/OS operating systems.
Although IBM no longer supports BookMaster, there is software to convert old BookMaster documents to HTML.
BookManager
BookManager is a family of products for producing and reading online books. BookManager BUILD/MVS and BookManager BUILD/VM are layered on top of SCRIPT and BookMaster and can run on z/VM and z/OS. Other BookManager BUILD products for generating text run on Linux, Windows or OS/2 and convert files produced by various word processors to BookManager format. BookManager Read products for viewing text run on a variety of systems. BookManager BookServer is a multi-platform system to "serve your electronic books to HTML browsers."{{cite web | title = IBM BookManager BookServer for Windows V2.3, IBM BookManager BookServer for AIX and Linux V2.3, and IBM BookManager Build for Windows V2.3 Increases Ease of Use | id = LTR 201-273 | year = 2001 | url = http://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?subtype=ca&infotype=an&appname=iSource&supplier=897&letternum=ENUS201-273 | work = Announcement Letters | publisher = IBM Corporation | accessdate = 2012-02-27
BookManager electronic documents typically have filenames ending with the extension .BOO. IBM offers several no charge tools to work with and read BookManager documents including a reader/viewer called IBM Softcopy Reader. An independent developer, Kev Bowling, created and released software that uses IBM's BookManager code libraries to convert BookManager documents to PDF.
References
References
- "SCRIPT, An Online Manuscript Processing System".
- Charles F. Goldfarb. (1996). "The Roots of SGML - A Personal Recollection".
- Hannotte, Dean. (March 19, 1985). "Put Your Text In Top Form". Ziff-Davis.
- For compatibility, DCF also includes EasyScript.
- Patterson, Ross. (2025-11-06). "Convert BookMaster files to HTML".
- IBM Corporation. (2011). "z/OS V1R10.0-V1R12.0 Library Server Getting Started".
- (2019-04-17). "Downloadable free BookManager tools and components".
- Bowling, Kevin. (2020-12-17). "boo2pdf".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::