to make possible a more cost-effective solution to the problem of computer system development. NELIAC was used to implement an experimental shipboard anti-submarine warfare system, and was also used for the development of the National Emergency Command Post Afloat (NECPA) project which developed a strategic command and control system installed on aircraft carriers and cruisers. Perhaps the most successful NELIAC application was control of the U.S. Navy automated High Frequency Direction Finding network (Classic Bullseye) which went into production in 1968 and lasted until the early 1990s. In addition, NEL developed NELOS, a batch operating system which provided input-output for magnetic tapes, printers, and telecom equipment, provided sequenced compiling of jobs, and a symbol library permitting linking of very large computer applications and executing them on-line. These included suites of information management programs, including databases, free form queries with a precursor of IBM's GIS, and reporting applications. NECPA and NELOS went to sea in 1966. NELIAC's end However, NELIAC programs were not easily portable because the language permitted manipulation of binary characters which were dependent on word lengths. Further, the NELIAC language had no input-output schemes. Also, its looping statement was unusually strict in that the index variable had to hit the end value exactly, or else an infinite loop would occur. These were the Achilles' heels of NELIAC. Many other well-known computer experts like Niklaus Wirth made contributions to the project, but ultimately NELIAC fell out of favor after the Navy Department standardized on compilers with commercial support. References External links A syntactic description of BC NELIAC at the ACM. Original documents about NELIAC and background information. (archived 2007) History of NELIAC through 1991. Documentation on bitsavers.org web-site Documentation on softwarepreservation.org web-site Algol programming language family ALGOL 58 dialect