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I'm curious about the history of the base language reportedly designed at Evans & Sutherland 1971ish. I couldn't turn up much in the few minutes of searching I

I'm curious about the history of the base language reportedly designed at Evans & Sutherland 1971ish. I couldn't turn up much in the few minutes of searching I did. If anyone can provide links to papers or anything on this subject I would appreciate it.

jwstarr 2y ago
As a a starting point, "The Origins of PostScript" (https://gwern.net/doc/design/typography/2018-warnock.pdf https://gwern.net/doc/design/typography/2018-warnock.pdf) provides a few details on the language and Gaffney's involvement. Warnock's oral history for the Computer History Museum (https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102738759 https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/10273875...) also includes the story. Gaffney's patent provides the most detail but, unfortunately, it is written as a patent rather than a language description. The DoD DTIC service has a couple of reports that cover the Harbor Pilot Simulation, but I haven't found any reports written by E&S. The Computer History Museum has some records from Evans and Sutherland, but I don't think any of them cover the language.
- kencausey 2y ago
  Thanks, but I saw that much, I should have been clearer. I'm hoping for something on the scale of a survey if not a paper. Honestly, my first curiosity regards whether Chuck Moore and Forth get any mention or whether this is a true parallel development, possibly necessitated by the hardware at hand. My perception, based on zero evidence, was that Forth had some influence on the design of Postscript.
  - tln 2y ago
    Apparently not. From "The Origins of PostScript" mentioned by GP: > The architecture suggested by John Gaffney was to be based on a fictitious stack machine (at that time we had no knowledge of a similar approach taken by the Forth language). That is the only mention of "Forth".
- fanf2 2y ago
  That led me to this presentation on the Eidophor projector https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-BvMcqEc98 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-BvMcqEc98
- twoodfin 2y ago
  Is that oral history actually available for download?
  - Rotundo 2y ago
    Yes, there is a link to a PDF containing a transcript in the page linked by the post above.

jwstarr 2y ago

As a a starting point, "The Origins of PostScript" (https://gwern.net/doc/design/typography/2018-warnock.pdf https://gwern.net/doc/design/typography/2018-warnock.pdf) provides a few details on the language and Gaffney's involvement. Warnock's oral history for the Computer History Museum (https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102738759 https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/10273875...) also includes the story. Gaffney's patent provides the most detail but, unfortunately, it is written as a patent rather than a language description. The DoD DTIC service has a couple of reports that cover the Harbor Pilot Simulation, but I haven't found any reports written by E&S. The Computer History Museum has some records from Evans and Sutherland, but I don't think any of them cover the language.

kencausey 2y ago
Thanks, but I saw that much, I should have been clearer. I'm hoping for something on the scale of a survey if not a paper. Honestly, my first curiosity regards whether Chuck Moore and Forth get any mention or whether this is a true parallel development, possibly necessitated by the hardware at hand. My perception, based on zero evidence, was that Forth had some influence on the design of Postscript.
- tln 2y ago
  Apparently not. From "The Origins of PostScript" mentioned by GP: > The architecture suggested by John Gaffney was to be based on a fictitious stack machine (at that time we had no knowledge of a similar approach taken by the Forth language). That is the only mention of "Forth".
fanf2 2y ago
That led me to this presentation on the Eidophor projector https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-BvMcqEc98 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-BvMcqEc98
twoodfin 2y ago
Is that oral history actually available for download?
- Rotundo 2y ago
  Yes, there is a link to a PDF containing a transcript in the page linked by the post above.