9. An automatically programmable signal monitoring or process control system for controlling an industrial system or the like comprising: sensor means associated with the apparatus for generating signals indictive of the state of the system; a digital computer system having a memory; signal scanning means associated with said computer system and connecting to said sensor means for scanning said sensor signals periodically and including means for transferring a digital record of the status of said signals into the memory of said digital computer system; at least one machine readable signal-related event definition defining as an event either the periodic scanning or a particular change in the state of at least one sensor signal including a designation which serves as a name for the event and also as a name for the signal, and including a reference to the location in said memory where the status record of the corresponding signal variable is stored; at least one machine readable job definition including at least one triggering reference to a designation which serves as a name for an event and for a signal and which is included in at least one event definition; loader means for operating said computer system to accept said event and job definitions and to store said definitions in said memory; trigger-connect means for operating said computer system to link job definitions, but only those containing trigger reference to designations, to locations in said memory that are in turn linked to the event definition and status data for the designated signals; means for operating said computer system to respond to the occurrence of a signal-related event by initiating execution of any and all job definitions which are linked to the status data and definition corresponding to that event; at least one definition which contains a reference to the status of a signal by designation or signal name and not by memory address; and means for operating said computer system in response to the acceptance of a first definition which refers to the status of a signal by designation or name for locating a second signal-name definition containing the same designation, for retrieving the variable status memory address from the second definition, and for transferring the variable signal status memory address into the first definition.
9. An automatically programmable signal monitoring or process control system for controlling an industrial system or the like comprising: sensor means associated with the apparatus for generating signals indictive of the state of the system; a digital computer system having a memory; signal scanning means associated with said computer system and connecting to said sensor means for scanning said sensor signals periodically and including means for transferring a digital record of the status of said signals into the memory of said digital computer system; at least one machine readable signal-related event definition defining as an event either the periodic scanning or a particular change in the state of at least one sensor signal including a designation which serves as a name for the event and also as a name for the signal, and including a reference to the location in said memory where the status record of the corresponding signal variable is stored; at least one machine readable job definition including at least one triggering reference to a designation which serves as a name for an event and for a signal and which is included in at least one event definition; loader means for operating said computer system to accept said event and job definitions and to store said definitions in said memory; trigger-connect means for operating said computer system to link job definitions, but only those containing trigger reference to designations, to locations in said memory that are in turn linked to the event definition and status data for the designated signals; means for operating said computer system to respond to the occurrence of a signal-related event by initiating execution of any and all job definitions which are linked to the status data and definition corresponding to that event; at least one definition which contains a reference to the status of a signal by designation or signal name and not by memory address; and means for operating said computer system in response to the acceptance of a first definition which refers to the status of a signal by designation or name for locating a second signal-name definition containing the same designation, for retrieving the variable status memory address from the second definition, and for transferring the variable signal status memory address into the first definition. 13. A system in accordance with claim 9 wherein at least one signal-name designation is included in at least one job definition as a reference to the status of the signal and is also included in at least one other job definition as a reference to the triggering event defined by the periodic scanning or change in the state of that signal.