Experience with a generalized information processing system

Abstract

A generalized computer information storage and retrieval system has been in use at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, Corona, California since 1960. The system, called Variable Information Processing (VIP), has permitted the establishment and use of files of many varied and interrelated types of data with a minimum of effort on the part of the user, little effort for system setup, and no effort for computer programming. It has been used for storage and retrieval of loosely defined, nebulously structured bodies of information and even plain-text natural language information.