Macros for starting programs under George 3 and George 4 had evolved through the 1900 range and had no underlying structure. Parameters allowed when accessing one compiler either were not available for another or had different names.
A general purpose macro was developed by Graham Robinson called COMP for compilation, consolidation and running binary programs. This system was later renamed TASK.
The TASK system was fully operational by mid-1973 catering for Algol and PLAN (assembly language), as well as FORTRAN and PLASYD (a C-like language) compilers. It allowed users to start and finish anywhere in the compilation, consolidation and run binary program process. All the normal facilities of the individual ICL macros were provided, along with many additions.
By providing a system that users found easy to use, most programs eventually would use the system. By instrumenting TASK, good statistics of what users did on the machine were obtained.
The system proved very popular and a major enhancement was made late in 1973 to allow overlayed programs to be controlled by it. It was also extended to allow users to store large systems in a semi-compiled form and for TASK to take over the responsibility of collecting the necessary libraries and creating the binary program to run. Such system development systems did not appear in general until much later on.
