Editing MUSIC/SP (section)

{{Short description|Defunct time-sharing system software}}
{{use mdy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{use American English|date=July 2021}}
{{Infobox OS
| name                   = MUSIC/SP
| logo                   = 
| screenshot             = Music SP.png
| caption                = Example of initial login screen for MUSIC/SP on [[Windows XP]]
| developer              = [[McGill University]]
| source_model           = 
| kernel_type            = 
| supported_platforms    = [[System/360|S/360]], [[System/370|S/370]], and [[IBM 4300|4300-series]] [[IBM mainframe|mainframes]]
| ui                     = 
| family                 = 
| released               = {{Start date and age|1972}}
| latest_release_version = 
| latest_release_date    = 
| latest_test_version    = 
| latest_test_date       = 
| marketing_target       = Academic computing and the teaching of computer science
| programmed_in          = 
| prog_language          = [[Fortran]], [[COBOL]], [[Rexx]], [[Prolog]], [[APL (programming language)|APL]], and [[BASIC|VS-BASIC]]
| language               = [[English language|English]]
| updatemodel            = 
| package_manager        = 
| working_state          = Discontinued
| license                = 
| preceded by            = [[IBM Remote Access Computing|RAX]]
| succeeded by           = 
| website                = 
}}
{{History of IBM mainframe operating systems|misc}}
'''''MUSIC/SP''' (Multi-User System for Interactive Computing/System Product''; originally McGill University System for Interactive Computing) was developed at [[McGill University]] in the 1970s from an early [[IBM]] [[time-sharing]] system called RAX ([[IBM Remote Access Computing|Remote Access Computing System]]).<ref name="Miller">{{cite web |last1=Miller |first1=Roy Watt
   |title=MULTIPLE REGIONS FOR THE MCGILL-RAX TlME-SHARING SYSTEM
   |url=https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item?id=TC-QMM-50353&op=pdf&app=Library&oclc_number=895199506
   |website=Library and Archives Canada |access-date=April 29, 2021}}</ref><ref name="BU">{{cite web
|title=Boston University's RAX Library
|url=https://cryptosmith.com/2012/01/12/bu-rax
|website=Cryptosmith.com |date=January 12, 2012
|access-date=April 29, 2021}}</ref>

The system ran on IBM [[System/360|S/360]], [[System/370|S/370]], and [[IBM 4300|4300-series]] [[IBM mainframe|mainframe]] hardware, and offered then-novel features such as file access control and [[data compression]]. It was designed to allow academics and students to create and run their programs interactively on [[Computer terminal|terminals]], in an era when most mainframe computing was still being done from [[punched card]]s.  Over the years, development continued and the system evolved to embrace [[email]], the [[Internet]] and eventually the [[World Wide Web]]. At its peak in the late 1980s, there were over 200 [[University|universities]], [[college]]s and [[High school|high school districts]] that used the system in [[North America|North]] and [[South America]], [[Europe]] and [[Asia]].

''MUSIC'' was originally designed as a stand-alone operating system but with the advent of IBM's virtual machine facility, [[VM/370]],<ref name=MUSIConVM.IBM>{{cite web
   |url=https://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/ShowDoc.wss?docURL=/common/ssi/rep_sm/0/897/ENUS5749-010/index.html&lang=en
   |title=5749-010 - VIRTUAL MACHINE FACILITY/370 (VM/370)
   |date=January 12, 1989
 |access-date=July 19, 2021}}</ref> it became more common to deploy ''MUSIC'' as a guest operating system running under VM/370.