Data base task group report to the CODASYL programming language committee, October 1969

This report has been prepared by the Data Base Task Group which is an ad hoc committee of the CODASYL Programming Language Committee. The report details the recommendation of the Data Base Task Group to its parent committee. It consists of a proposal for a Data Description Language and a Data Manipulation Language. The Data Description Language is a language for describing a database. The Data Manipulation Language is language which, when associated with the facilities of a host language such as COBOL, PL/1, ALGOL, JOVIAL, FORTRAN..., allows manipulation of databases described by the Data Description Language. The specification of separate Data Description and Data Manipulation Languages is significant in that it allows databases described by the Data Description Language to be independent of the host languages used for processing the data. Of course, for this to be possible, the host language processors must be able to interface with such independent descriptions of data.