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Pick operating system

The Pick operating system (often called just "the Pick
system" or simply "Pick")[1] is a demand-paged, multiuser,
Pick operating system
virtual memory, time-sharing computer operating system Developer Don Nelson,
based around a MultiValue database. Pick is used primarily for Richard A. (Dick)
business data processing. It is named after one of its Pick, TRW
developers, Richard A. (Dick) Pick.[2] Written in Assembly
The term "Pick system" has also come to be used as the general language
name of all operating environments which employ this Initial release 1965 (GIRLS),
multivalued database and have some implementation of 1973 (Reality
Pick/BASIC and ENGLISH/Access queries. Although Pick Operating
started on a variety of minicomputers, the system and its System)
various implementations eventually spread to a large
Marketing target Business data
assortment of microcomputers, personal computers[3] and
processing
mainframe computers.[4][5]
Available in English
Platforms Solaris, Linux,
Contents AIX, Windows
Server (2000 and
Overview up)
History Kernel type Monolithic (or
Derivative and related products none for
operating
Criticisms and comparisons
Run-time environment environment
implementations)
Credentials and security
Expertise and support Default Text-based
See also user interface
License Proprietary
References
Bibliography
External links

Overview
The Pick operating system consists of a database, dictionary, query language, procedural language
(PROC), peripheral management, multi-user management, and a compiled BASIC Programming
language.[6]

The database is a 'hash-file' data management system. A hash-file system is a collection of dynamic
associative arrays which are organized altogether and linked and controlled using associative files

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as a database management system. Being hash-file oriented, Pick provides efficiency in data access
time. Originally, all data structures in Pick were hash-files (at the lowest level) meaning records are
stored as associated couplets of a primary key to a set of values. Today a Pick system can also
natively access host files in Windows or Unix in any format.

A Pick database is divided into one or more accounts, master dictionaries, dictionaries, files, and
sub-files, each of which is a hash-table oriented file. These files contain records made up of fields,
sub-fields, and sub-sub-fields. In Pick, records are called items, fields are called attributes, and
sub-fields are called values or sub-values (hence the present-day label "multivalued database"). All
elements are variable-length, with field and values marked off by special delimiters, so that any file,
record, or field may contain any number of entries of the lower level of entity. As a result, a Pick
item (record) can be one complete entity (one entire invoice, purchase order, sales order, etc.), or is
like a file on most conventional systems. Entities that are stored as 'files' in other common-place
systems (e.g. source programs and text documents) must be stored as records within files on
Pick.[7]

The file hierarchy is roughly equivalent to the common Unix-like hierarchy of directories, sub-
directories, and files. The master dictionary is similar to a directory in that it stores pointers to
other dictionaries, files and executable programs. The master dictionary also contains the
command-line language.

All files (accounts, dictionaries, files, sub-files) are organized identically, as are all records. This
uniformity is exploited throughout the system, both by system functions, and by the system
administration commands. For example, the 'find' command will find and report the occurrence of
a word or phrase in a file, and can operate on any account, dictionary, file or sub-file.

Each record must have a unique primary key which determines where in a file that record is stored.
To retrieve a record, its key is hashed and the resultant value specifies which of a set of discrete
"buckets" (called "groups") to look in for the record. Within a bucket, records are scanned
sequentially. Therefore, most records (e.g. a complete document) can be read using one single disk-
read operation. This same method is used to write the record back to its correct "bucket".

In its initial implementation, Pick records were limited to 32 KB in total (when a 10 MB hard disk
cost US$5000), although this limit was removed in the 1980s. Files can contain an unlimited
number of records, but retrieval efficiency is determined by the number of records relative to the
number of buckets allocated to the file. Each file may be initially allocated as many buckets as
required, although changing this extent later may (for some file types) require the file to be
quiescent. All modern multi-value databases have a special file-type which changes extent
dynamically as the file is used. These use a technique called linear hashing, whose cost is
proportional to the change in file size, not (as in typical hashed files) the file size itself. All files
start as a contiguous group of disk pages, and grow by linking additional "overflow" pages from
unused disk space.

Initial Pick implementations had no index structures as they were not deemed necessary. Around
1990, a B-tree indexing feature was added. This feature makes secondary key look-ups operate
much like keyed inquiries of any other database system: requiring at least two disk reads (a key
read then a data-record read).

Pick data files are usually two levels. The first level is known as the "dictionary" level and is
mandatory. It contains:

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▪ Dictionary items – the optional items that serve as definitions for the names and structure of the
items in the data fork, used in reporting
▪ The data-level identifier – a pointer to the second or "data" level of the file

Files created with only one level are, by default, dictionary files. Some versions of the Pick system
allow multiple data levels to be linked to one dictionary level file, in which case there would be
multiple data-level identifiers in the dictionary file.

A Pick database has no data typing,[8] since all data is stored as characters, including numbers
(which are stored as character decimal digits). Data integrity, rather than being controlled by the
system, is controlled by the applications and the discipline of the programmers. Because a logical
document in Pick is not fragmented (as it would be in SQL), intra-record integrity is automatic.

In contrast to many SQL database systems, Pick allows for multiple, pre-computed field aliases.
For example, a date field may have an alias definition for the format "12 Oct 1999", and another
alias formatting that same date field as "10/12/99". File cross-connects or joins are handled as a
synonym definition of the foreign key. A customer's data, such as name and address, are "joined"
from the customer file into the invoice file via a synonym definition of "customer number" in the
"invoice" dictionary.

Pick record structure favors a non-first-normal-form composition, where all of the data for an
entity is stored in a single record, obviating the need to perform joins. Managing large, sparse data
sets in this way can result in efficient use of storage space. This is why these databases are
sometimes called NF2 or NF-squared databases.

History
Pick was originally implemented as the Generalized Information Retrieval Language
System (GIRLS) on an IBM System/360 in 1965 by Don Nelson and Richard (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.
[9][10]

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.[11] McDonnell Douglas bought Microdata in 1981.[5]

Originally on the Microdata implementation, and subsequently implemented on all Pick systems, a
BASIC language called Data/BASIC with numerous syntax extensions for smart terminal interface
and database operations was the primary programming language for applications. A PROC
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[12] 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

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