3 ms·

BCPL (2022)

24 points by AlexeyBrin 1y ago

ColinWright 1y ago
Much of the computational aspect of my PhD was written in BCPL[0], it's nice to see it's still alive and running. Greybeard story time: I learned BCPL when competing in a CoNeutron[1][2][3] competition. My player was written in Pascal but I kept getting errors. Eventually I tracked down a compiler bug, produced a 20 line program that provoked it, and submitted it to the Computer Lab. I got back a standard "We'll look into it, but it's probably a bug in your program." About 30 minutes later I got another email, this one said: "Wow, it is a compiler bug ... congratulations! But it won't get fixed." So I learned BCPL, transliterated the CoNeutron player code into it, and it immediately ran about 10 times faster and became effectively unbeatable. My player even beat David Seal[4][5]'s player running on then new ARM processors ... details of which were confidential, and never fully revealed. Fun times. ================= [0] Other bits were written in ForTran, zed line editor, and batch-control, all running on an IBM3084Q with Phoenix as the OS. [1] It was intended to be a Neutron competition, but the rules were incorrectly explained. [2] http://www.gamerz.net/pbmserv/coneutron.html http://www.gamerz.net/pbmserv/coneutron.html [3] https://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/CoNeutron.html https://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/CoNeutron.html [4] https://davidseal.muchloved.com/ https://davidseal.muchloved.com/ [5] https://www.informit.com/authors/bio/1e767638-32b7-4c7b-81c8-d64e7a105f96 https://www.informit.com/authors/bio/1e767638-32b7-4c7b-81c8... [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_(computer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_(computer)
- skissane 1y ago
  > all running on an IBM3084Q with Phoenix as the OS Digressing, but I wonder if any copies of Phoenix/MVS survive, and if so, whether it could be made to run under Hercules
  - lambdaone 1y ago
    The (final version of the) physical Phoenix computer still exists, but the disks are missing - see https://www.computermuseum.org.uk/fixed_pages/IBM3084.html https://www.computermuseum.org.uk/fixed_pages/IBM3084.html A backup was taken before shutdown: https://web.archive.org/web/20041115131602/http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/newsletter/1995/nl183/phoenix.html https://web.archive.org/web/20041115131602/http://www.cam.ac... I would be surprised if someone, somewhere, didn't still have a copy of what would nowadays be considered to be an absurdly small amount of data. If they do, I wouldn't be surprised if they read HN.
pmcjones 1y ago
Information about other implementations of BCPL: https://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/BCPL/ https://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/BCPL/
lambdaone 1y ago
BCPL was great. Cambridge Lisp was written in BCPL, and I found BCPL really pleasant to work in.
deleted 1y ago
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BCPL (2022)

24 points by AlexeyBrin 1y ago

Much of the computational aspect of my PhD was written in BCPL[0], it's nice to see it's still alive and running. Greybeard story time: I learned BCPL when competing in a CoNeutron[1][2][3] competition. My player was written in Pascal but I kept getting errors. Eventually I tracked down a compiler bug, produced a 20 line program that provoked it, and submitted it to the Computer Lab. I got back a standard "We'll look into it, but it's probably a bug in your program." About 30 minutes later I got another email, this one said: "Wow, it is a compiler bug ... congratulations! But it won't get fixed." So I learned BCPL, transliterated the CoNeutron player code into it, and it immediately ran about 10 times faster and became effectively unbeatable. My player even beat David Seal[4][5]'s player running on then new ARM processors ... details of which were confidential, and never fully revealed. Fun times. ================= [0] Other bits were written in ForTran, zed line editor, and batch-control, all running on an IBM3084Q with Phoenix as the OS. [1] It was intended to be a Neutron competition, but the rules were incorrectly explained. [2] http://www.gamerz.net/pbmserv/coneutron.html http://www.gamerz.net/pbmserv/coneutron.html [3] https://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/CoNeutron.html https://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/CoNeutron.html [4] https://davidseal.muchloved.com/ https://davidseal.muchloved.com/ [5] https://www.informit.com/authors/bio/1e767638-32b7-4c7b-81c8-d64e7a105f96 https://www.informit.com/authors/bio/1e767638-32b7-4c7b-81c8... [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_(computer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_(computer)

skissane 1y ago
> all running on an IBM3084Q with Phoenix as the OS Digressing, but I wonder if any copies of Phoenix/MVS survive, and if so, whether it could be made to run under Hercules
- lambdaone 1y ago
  The (final version of the) physical Phoenix computer still exists, but the disks are missing - see https://www.computermuseum.org.uk/fixed_pages/IBM3084.html https://www.computermuseum.org.uk/fixed_pages/IBM3084.html A backup was taken before shutdown: https://web.archive.org/web/20041115131602/http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/newsletter/1995/nl183/phoenix.html https://web.archive.org/web/20041115131602/http://www.cam.ac... I would be surprised if someone, somewhere, didn't still have a copy of what would nowadays be considered to be an absurdly small amount of data. If they do, I wouldn't be surprised if they read HN.

pmcjones 1y ago

Information about other implementations of BCPL: https://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/BCPL/ https://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/BCPL/

lambdaone 1y ago

BCPL was great. Cambridge Lisp was written in BCPL, and I found BCPL really pleasant to work in.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]