Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!bacchus.pa.dec.com!e2big.mko.dec.com!ceomax!gillett From: gillett@ceomax..dec.com (Christopher Gillett) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Algol, and language design Message-ID: <428@e2big.mko.dec.com> Date: 29 Jul 90 18:47:07 GMT References: <25630@cs.yale.edu> <58091@lanl.gov> <1990Jul26.024449.1777@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us> <2406@l.cc.purdue.edu> <1990Jul27.010930.12560@lth.se> <1990Jul28.185054.2595@sco.COM> Sender: usenet@e2big.mko.dec.com Reply-To: gillett@ceomax.dec.com (Christopher Gillett) Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation, Semiconductor Engineering Group Lines: 51 In article <1990Jul28.185054.2595@sco.COM> seanf@sco.COM (Sean Fagan) writes: >In article <1990Jul27.010930.12560@lth.se> bengtl@maths.lth.se (Bengt Larsson) writes: >>Yes, of course some architectures made (make??) it somewhat difficult >>to have recursive procedures (the ones that stored the return adress in >>the first word of the subroutine comes to mind). > >"somewhat more difficult." That's *all*. > >The CDC Cyber 170 machines (of which most people know I am a big fan 8-)) >have no stack, and, on a subroutine call, write an instruction into the >first word of the subroutine ("jump ," basicly). > >Yet: Pascal was developed on this machine (literally! Wirth used a Cyber >for the first implementation of Pascal). Algol and Simula run quite well on >it. So does PL/I (although the compiler eats up all of memory 8-)). There >are even a couple of C compilers out there, I've been told. Hmmm. The Cyber 170's were *soooo* cool. Personal bias: I learned tons 'o stuff hacking on a 170/730D running NOS2.1 whilst in school. The systems guys who looked after the machine really taught me a lot. Anyways, I've seen the Pascal compiler (ETH Zurich) in source for this machine. It's an interesting read. My big question though: who does C compilers for this machine? Are they produced by CDC, or through a 3rd party. Putting a C compiler on one of those suckers had to have been a *really* nasty job, especially since NOS (at least back then) tended to regard users who wanted to use real upper/lower case ASCII as 2nd class citizens. I disagree with you about PL/I for these machines. PL/I was an intolerable pain, terribly slow, and not even a good subset G implementation. Pascal was done very well though. Semi-serious question: Does anybody know where you can buy these old machines? My alma mater sold theres for scrap for around $5,000. We were all bummed out, because we nearly bid for it, but figured that it would go for 10-20K. Anyways, if I found one selling at junk prices..... Of course, the 440 Volt 3 phase power requirements (not to mention the water cooling) would make it difficult to operate. :-) Oops, sorry. I'm off the subject. Maybe we should direct followups to comp.dinosaurs :-). Talk of Cybers makes my little techo-heart go pitter-pat (or is that "blip-blip" :-) ). >Sean Eric Fagan | "let's face it, finding yourself dead is one /Chris --- Christopher Gillett gillett@ceomax.dec.com Digital Equipment Corporation {decwrl,decpa}!ceomax.dec.com!gillett Hudson, Taxachusetts (508) 568-7172