Editing Batch processing (section)

===Early history===
Early computers were capable of running only one program at a time. Each user had sole control of the machine for a scheduled period of time. They would arrive at the computer with program and data, often on [[punch card|punched paper card]]s and magnetic or paper tape, and would load their program, run and debug it, and carry off their output when done.

As computers became faster the setup and takedown time became a larger percentage of available computer time. Programs called ''monitors'', the forerunners of [[operating system]]s, were developed which could process a series, or "batch", of programs, often from [[magnetic-tape data storage|magnetic tape]] prepared offline. The monitor would be loaded into the computer and run the first job of the batch. At the end of the job it would regain control and load and run the next until the batch was complete. Often the output of the batch would be written to magnetic tape and printed or punched offline. Examples of monitors were IBM's ''Fortran Monitor System'', SOS (Share Operating System), and finally [[IBM 7090/94 IBSYS|IBSYS]] for IBM's [[IBM 700/7000 series|709x]] systems in 1960.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Direct Couple for the IBM 7090 |website=SoftwarePreservationGroup.org |url=http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/os/dc.html |quote=IBSYS was an operating system for the 7090 that evolved from SOS (SHARE Operating System)}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=History of Operating Systems |url=https://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse451/16wi/readings/lecture_readings/LCM_OperatingSystemsTimeline_Color_acd_newsize.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse451/16wi/readings/lecture_readings/LCM_OperatingSystemsTimeline_Color_acd_newsize.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09}}</ref>