How to Talk to a Tool

About seven years ago Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed machine tools with small mechanical brains that take their orders from punched paper tapes. Needing no human help, they eliminated the jobs of many human operators, but as compensation, they created jobs for mathematicians to put their instructions in the number language that their brains understand. Last week M.I.T. demonstrated a second step: it had developed a gimmick to dump the mathematicians.

The trick was done by inventing an "English-like language" that any good machinist can learn and that a computer can translate into the numerical language of the machines' tapes. A draftsman makes a detailed drawing of the part wanted. A part programer studies it carefully and writes orders for the machine tool in APT (Automatically Programed Tool) language. This language is not decorative. A simple example: "ON KUL, ON

SPN, GO RGT, TL LFT, CIRCLE/CTR AT, + 2, + 3, RADIUS, + 5." Meaning: "Turn on coolant, turn on spindle, go right with tool on left side along circle whose center is at x= +2,y = +3, with a radius of+5." This language is translated by a large computer that has been fed a set of cards punched with the APT grammar and vocabulary, thus has "learned" APT language. After it has read the APT instructions, the computer tests its solution with a blip of light that appears on a screen and goes through the motions that the machine tool is expected to make. If no corrections are needed, the computer spits out a tape carrying the orders translated into number language. The tape is fed into the tool's mechanical brain, and without further human guidance, the tool forthwith turns out the part that the designer dreamed up.

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