The History of NOMAD: A Fourth Generation Language

Nomad, a major 4th generation language, was designed and implemented by National CSS, a principal time-sharing company in the 1970s. The author, one of the team members who developed Nomad, provides the background of the company and describes their use of Ramis as a significant contributor to the company's revenue. After Mathematica's decision to change the price of Ramis, the decision was made to set up "skunk works" to build not just a replacement, but a far better product. The author then describes the Nomad development process, the contributions made by the team members, how the product was named, how it was used, and its history up to the present.