bcpl

3 definitions found

bcpl - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  BCPL
  
     <language> (Basic CPL) A British systems language developed by
     Richards in 1969 and descended from CPL (Combined
     Programming Language).  BCPL is low-level, typeless and
     block-structured, and provides only one-dimensional arrays.
     Case is not significant, but conventionally reserved words
     begin with a capital.  Flow control constructs include:
     If-Then, Test-Then-Else, Unless-Do, While-Do, Until-Do,
     Repeat, Repeatwhile, Repeatuntil, For-to-By-Do, Loop, Break
     and Switchon-Into-Case-Default-Endcase.  BCPL has conditional
     expressions, pointers, and manifest constants.  It has both
     procedures: 'Let foo(bar) Be command' and functions: 'Let
     foo(bar) = expression'.  'Valof $(..Resultis..$)' causes a
     compound command to produce a value.  Parameters are
     call-by-value.
  
     Program segments communicate via the global vector where
     system and user variables are stored in fixed numerical
     locations in a single array.
  
     The first BCPL compiler was written in AED.  BCPL was used
     to implement the TRIPOS operating system, which was
     subsequently reincarnated as AmigaDOS.
  
     ["BCPL - The Language and its Compiler", Martin Richards &
     Colin Whitby-Stevens, Cambridge U Press 1979].
  
     See OCODE, INTCODE.
  
     Oxford BCPL differed slightly: Test-Ifso-Ifnot, and section
     brackets in place of $( $).
  
     The original INTCODE interpreter for BCPL is available for
     Amiga, Unix, MS-DOS
     
  (ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/amiga/programming/languages/BCPL/).
  
     A BCPL compiler bootstrap kit with an INTCODE
     interpreter in C was written by Ken Yap
     <ken@syd.dit.csiro.au>.
  
     (1995-03-26)
  

bcpl - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  BCPL
   //, n.
  
     [abbreviation, "Basic Combined Programming Language") A programming
     language developed by Martin Richards in Cambridge in 1967. It is
     remarkable for its rich syntax, small size of compiler (it can be run
     in 16k) and extreme portability. It reached break-even point at a
  very
     early stage, and was the language in which the original hello world
     program was written. It has been ported to so many different systems
     that its creator confesses to having lost count. It has only one data
     type (a machine word) which can be used as an integer, a character, a
     floating point number, a pointer, or almost anything else, depending
     on context. BCPL was a precursor of C, which inherited some of its
     features.
  

bcpl - V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (June 2006) :

  BCPL
         Basic / BBN  Combined Programming Language (BBN)