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Who was the genius behind these features? Someone was incredibly forward looking in that company. Too bad it never got out into the world and impacted the lan

Who was the genius behind these features? Someone was incredibly forward looking in that company. Too bad it never got out into the world and impacted the language standards. It is surprising to see that so long ago. Also previously covered here on Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38938402 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38938402 Is there a PDF copy of this somewhere?

dfawcus 2y ago
Bitsavers has a copy of the HC 1.2 reference manual (1985) It describes underscores in numbers, case ranges, named parameters, nested functions, and full function variables. https://bitsavers.org/pdf/metaware/High_C_Language_Reference_Manual_1.2_Nov85.pdf See Appendix A - 50 odd pages from the end of the file.
layer8 2y ago
CLU had for loops with iterators (generators) and yield in the mid–late 1970s [0]. The Icon programming language around the same time had similar generator features [1] (with yield spelled “suspend”). Ada (1983) also had such features I believe. These weren’t completely unknown language features. [0] https://publications.csail.mit.edu/lcs/pubs/pdf/MIT-LCS-TR-225.pdf https://publications.csail.mit.edu/lcs/pubs/pdf/MIT-LCS-TR-2... [1] https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/800055.802034 https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/800055.802034
- Agingcoder 2y ago
  Ada didn’t have generators back then and still doesn’t ( I think its being considered for inclusion soon ). But it had all the other features.
  - LiamPowell 2y ago
    A task type with an entry is effectively a generator.
jmspring 2y ago
Metaware was a prolific compiler company based out of Santa Cruz in the 80s/90s. Loved what they did, they also had a very interesting culture. I knew about them through cough shady cough sites when learning and writing code back in the day.
canucker2016 2y ago
Yeah, it's sad to see those features as novel features instead of part of the standard list of features most programming languages supply. There's a link to the compiler manuals at https://winworldpc.com/product/metaware-high-c-cpp/33x https://winworldpc.com/product/metaware-high-c-cpp/33x The C manual PDF file mentions a 2007 copyright.
pjmlp 2y ago
Not really, if you dig into archives of high level programming languages since FORTRAN, Lisp, ALGOL and COBOL sprung into existence, you will see lots of these language ideas. You will also discover the rich history of systems programming languages, and how similar C and Go design's are in ignoring what was being done in other ecosystems, and past experiences.

dfawcus 2y ago

Bitsavers has a copy of the HC 1.2 reference manual (1985) It describes underscores in numbers, case ranges, named parameters, nested functions, and full function variables. https://bitsavers.org/pdf/metaware/High_C_Language_Reference_Manual_1.2_Nov85.pdf See Appendix A - 50 odd pages from the end of the file.

layer8 2y ago

CLU had for loops with iterators (generators) and yield in the mid–late 1970s [0]. The Icon programming language around the same time had similar generator features [1] (with yield spelled “suspend”). Ada (1983) also had such features I believe. These weren’t completely unknown language features. [0] https://publications.csail.mit.edu/lcs/pubs/pdf/MIT-LCS-TR-225.pdf https://publications.csail.mit.edu/lcs/pubs/pdf/MIT-LCS-TR-2... [1] https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/800055.802034 https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/800055.802034

Agingcoder 2y ago
Ada didn’t have generators back then and still doesn’t ( I think its being considered for inclusion soon ). But it had all the other features.
- LiamPowell 2y ago
  A task type with an entry is effectively a generator.

jmspring 2y ago

Metaware was a prolific compiler company based out of Santa Cruz in the 80s/90s. Loved what they did, they also had a very interesting culture. I knew about them through cough shady cough sites when learning and writing code back in the day.

canucker2016 2y ago

Yeah, it's sad to see those features as novel features instead of part of the standard list of features most programming languages supply. There's a link to the compiler manuals at https://winworldpc.com/product/metaware-high-c-cpp/33x https://winworldpc.com/product/metaware-high-c-cpp/33x The C manual PDF file mentions a 2007 copyright.

pjmlp 2y ago

Not really, if you dig into archives of high level programming languages since FORTRAN, Lisp, ALGOL and COBOL sprung into existence, you will see lots of these language ideas. You will also discover the rich history of systems programming languages, and how similar C and Go design's are in ignoring what was being done in other ecosystems, and past experiences.