Experience in standardization of programming languages for mini- and microcomputers 1 Sergei Prokhorov Vavilov Institute for the History of Science and Technology of Russian Academy of Sciences Moscow, Russia sergei.prokhorov@gmail.com ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1874-8602 Abstract. The article describes the experience of the scientific and technical commission for the unification of programming languages for mini- and microcomputers, created under the USSR State Committee for Science and Technology. The appearance in the early 1980s of little compatible models of computers initiated the task of revising the software used to ensure the portability of programs when switching to new types of computers. It was vitally important for programming control computers and simulators that simulate control for technological processes. The limitation of the task to the classes of mini- and microcomputers only was explained by the fact these classes computers were used mainly in simulators and control systems. The side results of the commission's activities were more significant than the formal results. Keywords: standardization, computer standard, system programming, programming languages, software, minicomputers, microcomputers, GOST In the second half of the 1970s, most of the series of Soviet computers were discontinued. Among them were the popular series Dnepr, Mir, Nairi, Razdan, Ural [1]. The production of the Minsk computer series was discontinued, including the Minsk-32 computer, which was the main machine for regional computing centers and was designed to solve a wide range of scientific, technical, planning, economic and statistical tasks requiring large amounts of operational and external memory [2]. They were gradually replaced by machines - clones of foreign models IBM 360, Hewlett Packard HP-2000, DEC PDP-11, Intel 8080. Many different types of incompatible computers made it difficult to port programs when switching from one type of machine to another. Even for programs written in widely used languages, there was no guarantee that problems would not arise when switching to other types of computers. Additional complications were caused by the wide variety of dialects for the main programming languages. Translators for each type of computer contained additional features, extensions of the standard language, allowing you to write more efficient programs on a specific type of machine. But they were often absent on other types of computers. The presence of different dialects of the language could lead to hidden errors if the translators interpreted the source texts differently. As a result, machine codes might not match the original intent of the programmer. This was especially important when programming control machines and simulators that simulate control for technological processes. This problem attracted the attention of the simulators and control systems developers, who turned to the USSR State Committee for Science and Technology (SCST) with an initiative to unify the software for minicomputers and microcomputers to ensure software portability when switching to new types of machines. The limitation of the task of unification only by the classes of mini- and microcomputers was explained by the fact that it was the machines of these classes that were used in simulators and as control systems. On October 4, 1980, the State Committee for Science and Technology issued a decree "On the organization of the Temporary Scientific and Technical Commission for the development of proposals for the 1 Sergei Prokhorov. Experience in standardization of programming languages for mini-and microcomputers. 2021 International Conference Engineering Technologies and Computer Science (EnT), IEEE, 2021, pp. 6-9. DOI 10.1109/EnT52731.2021.00008. © 2020 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. The SCST Resolution of the Commission foundation