<s>
ASSIST	O
(	O
the	O
Assembler	O
System	O
for	O
Student	O
Instruction	O
and	O
Systems	O
Teaching	O
)	O
is	O
an	O
IBM	B-Device
System/370	I-Device
-compatible	O
assembler	O
and	O
interpreter	B-Application
developed	O
in	O
the	O
early	O
1970s	O
at	O
Penn	O
State	O
University	O
by	O
Graham	O
Campbell	O
and	O
John	O
Mashey	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
They	O
needed	O
to	O
run	O
short	O
programs	O
on	O
decks	O
of	O
Punched	B-Architecture
cards	I-Architecture
with	O
fast	O
turnaround	O
(	O
minutes	O
,	O
not	O
overnight	O
)	O
as	O
their	O
programs	O
more	O
often	O
included	O
syntax	O
errors	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Once	O
they	O
compiled	B-Language
,	O
they	O
would	O
often	O
fault	O
quickly	O
,	O
so	O
optimization	O
and	O
flexibility	O
were	O
far	O
less	O
important	O
than	O
low	O
overhead	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
WATFIV	B-Language
was	O
a	O
successful	O
pioneering	O
effort	O
to	O
build	O
a	O
FORTRAN	B-Application
compiler	B-Language
tuned	O
for	O
student	O
use	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Universities	O
began	O
running	O
it	O
in	O
a	O
dedicated	O
"	O
fast-batch	O
"	O
memory	O
partition	O
with	O
a	O
small	O
run-time	O
limit	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
5	O
seconds	O
on	O
an	O
IBM	B-Device
System/360	I-Device
Model	I-Device
67	I-Device
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
WATFIV	B-Language
's	O
success	O
helped	O
inspire	O
development	O
of	O
ASSIST	O
,	O
PL/C	B-Language
and	O
other	O
student-oriented	O
programs	O
that	O
fit	O
the	O
"	O
fast-batch	O
"	O
model	O
that	O
became	O
widely	O
used	O
among	O
universities	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
On	O
March	O
1	O
,	O
1998	O
,	O
Penn	O
State	O
declared	O
that	O
ASSIST	O
was	O
no	O
longer	O
copyrighted	O
and	O
that	O
the	O
program	B-Application
was	O
freely	B-License
available	I-License
as	O
per	O
the	O
last	O
release	O
notes	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
original	O
ASSIST	O
code	O
seems	O
to	O
still	O
get	O
some	O
use	O
,	O
as	O
seen	O
in	O
2017	O
demonstration	O
video	O
assembling	O
its	O
source	O
and	O
running	O
it	O
in	O
MVS	B-Application
3.8	O
emulation	O
on	O
a	O
laptop	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Assembly	O
programmers	O
of	O
the	O
era	O
,	O
including	O
those	O
who	O
wrote	O
ASSIST	O
,	O
often	O
saved	O
precious	O
memory	O
by	O
using	O
the	O
high-order	O
8	O
bits	O
for	O
flags	O
,	O
which	O
required	O
a	O
compatibility	O
mode	O
when	O
IBM	O
introduced	O
31-bit	O
and	O
then	O
64-bit	B-Device
addressing	O
.	O
</s>
