Show HN: A faithful MUMPS 76 anniversary implementation – the original NoSQL DB
A developer released an open-source implementation of MUMPS-76, a historic programming language and database system often considered the original NoSQL database, to mark its anniversary. The project aims to faithfully recreate the 1976 specification on modern systems.
Background
MUMPS (Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System) is a programming language and database system from 1966, still widely used in healthcare — Veterans Affairs and many hospital systems run on it. It is a "NoSQL" predecessor: its built-in hierarchical database stores data in persistent, multidimensional arrays accessed by a single language, not SQL. "MUMPS 76" refers to the 1976 ANSI standard version, which is the classic, simpler dialect. This GitHub project implements a faithful clone of that original system, preserving its idiosyncratic syntax (no reserved words, line-numbered code, terse commands like `S` for `SET`). The project matters because MUMPS (now called M) remains critical infrastructure in health IT, is notoriously hard to learn/modernize, and this implementation lets developers study or run legacy MUMPS code without proprietary licensing.