To devise an information processing system capable of getting along on its own - it must handle its own problems of programming, bookkeeping, communication and coordination with its users. It must appear to its users as a single, integrated personality.

It is considered the true "father" of the JOSS language. John Clifford Shaw (1922–1991) was a systems programmer at the RAND Corporation.

He invented the linked list on which almost all of computer technology now depends. John Clifford Shaw (1922–1991) was a systems programmer at the RAND Corporation.