65. An industrial system or the like comprising: apparatus for implementing system operations; sensor means associated with the apparatus for generating signals indicative 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 the 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 signal and which is 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 references 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; means for preliminarily translating at least some definitions from a first coding which is intelligible to and easily generatable by human beings into a second coding which is suitable for on-line interpretation and execution of the definitions; and at least one processing program which includes means for interpreting and executing definitions using said second coding.
65. An industrial system or the like comprising: apparatus for implementing system operations; sensor means associated with the apparatus for generating signals indicative 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 the 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 signal and which is 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 references 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; means for preliminarily translating at least some definitions from a first coding which is intelligible to and easily generatable by human beings into a second coding which is suitable for on-line interpretation and execution of the definitions; and at least one processing program which includes means for interpreting and executing definitions using said second coding. 67. A system in accordance with claim 65 wherein at least some of the definitions which are translated define executable jobs and are written in a first coding the terminology of which is at least in part selected to suit the nature of the system and vocabulary of the humans who are configuring the system, to which is added a machine readable macro specification containing instructions to control the translation of said first coding into said second coding, and wherein the means for preliminarily translating includes means for accepting said macro specification and for using said macro specification to control the translation procedure.