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The languages that first became popular were restricted to the inflexible orthography of pre-computer punched-card accounting systems, but they aren't the whole
by kps 12y ago
The languages that first became popular were restricted to the inflexible orthography of pre-computer punched-card accounting systems, but they aren't the whole story. Other early programming languages took advantage teletypewriter I/O, and used features like two-color ribbons (e.g. with comments in red) and half-line motions for superscripts (exponentiation) and subscripts. Some, like COLASL, MADCAP, and Klerer-May system, even accepted expressions typed in two-dimensional form.
- kps 12y agoThis (free PDF) article contains some examples of programming with typed two-dimensional input: M. Klerer and J. May, A user oriented programming language, The Computer Journal (1965) 8 (2): 103-109. doi:10.1093/comjnl/8.2.103 http://comjnl.oxfordjournals.org/content/8/2/103.abstract http://comjnl.oxfordjournals.org/content/8/2/103.abstract