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In the late 1980s I wrote much of the code for my PhD in BCPL, despite C being available. It was clean, clear, and when you wrote code it was obvious what it w

In the late 1980s I wrote much of the code for my PhD in BCPL, despite C being available. It was clean, clear, and when you wrote code it was obvious what it was going to do. The type-less nature wasn't a problem, and co-routines were invaluable, bordering on indispensable. I also assisted in bootstrapping BCPL on a self-built machine, and it was so easy. I liked it, though I'm not sure I'd go back to it. I also chatted with Martin Richards for a while about MCPL, but never found the time to dive into that. Fun times.

082349872349872 2y ago
MCPL's one of my influences[0] so that line's continuing. Dum spiro spero Richards wanted to build a flight simulator a while back, so he added floating[1] point. Richards 1 - Yaks 0: that yak got shorn. [0] I guess I should ask Richards how much influence he got from Backus? [1] would Moore have done it in fixed? or are there stability problems with that?
- moomin 2y ago
  Students I knew who had him as a lecturer referred to it (derisively) as Martin’s Completely Perfect Language.
  - 082349872349872 2y ago
    Does that imply CPL was not Cambridge, nor yet Combined, but rather Christopher's Perfect Language? (the EE's of the time had not yet perfected their art sufficiently for CPL to have been viable for personal computing; does it work better now that we have GHz and GB?)
helpfulContrib 2y ago
I also chatted with Mr. Richards for a while, after porting BCPL to the GP2X handheld 'underground' gaming machine, and using BCPL to emulate an EDSAC on which I wanted to run XOX, thus claiming the title of 'oldest title to be ported to the GP2X', for a while. Mr. Richards got himself a GP2X after a while, and then saw how folks were porting BCPL all over the place, and I think he kind of got a big kick out of that .. we fell out of touch, but it was really a worthwhile effort to port BCPL like that, and attract the attention of the master ..

082349872349872 2y ago

MCPL's one of my influences[0] so that line's continuing. Dum spiro spero Richards wanted to build a flight simulator a while back, so he added floating[1] point. Richards 1 - Yaks 0: that yak got shorn. [0] I guess I should ask Richards how much influence he got from Backus? [1] would Moore have done it in fixed? or are there stability problems with that?

moomin 2y ago
Students I knew who had him as a lecturer referred to it (derisively) as Martin’s Completely Perfect Language.
- 082349872349872 2y ago
  Does that imply CPL was not Cambridge, nor yet Combined, but rather Christopher's Perfect Language? (the EE's of the time had not yet perfected their art sufficiently for CPL to have been viable for personal computing; does it work better now that we have GHz and GB?)

helpfulContrib 2y ago

I also chatted with Mr. Richards for a while, after porting BCPL to the GP2X handheld 'underground' gaming machine, and using BCPL to emulate an EDSAC on which I wanted to run XOX, thus claiming the title of 'oldest title to be ported to the GP2X', for a while. Mr. Richards got himself a GP2X after a while, and then saw how folks were porting BCPL all over the place, and I think he kind of got a big kick out of that .. we fell out of touch, but it was really a worthwhile effort to port BCPL like that, and attract the attention of the master ..