Path: utzoo!utgpu!cunews!bnrgate!uunet!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!as
From: as@castle.ed.ac.uk (A Stevens)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn,eunet.micro.acorn
Subject: Re: BCPL (was: BBC micro + the 6809 )
Message-ID: <7789@castle.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 12 Jan 91 23:26:25 GMT
Sender: as@castle.ed.ac.uk
Organization: Edinburgh University Computing Service
Lines: 26

I know I shouldn't but I couldn't resist a reply.  Apologies in advance.

> Before you start insulting BCPL, just remember that without BCPL
> we would never have had the C language. Also remember that many

No insult to BCPL just a gentle jibe at a somewhat parochial choice
of first compiled (not BBC BASIC) HLL for the BBC micro.
BCPL does after all pretty much posit a word-addressed machine,
and is used not a lot more outside of Cambridge than say IMP is
outside Edinburgh.  For my money, given the time-frame (Not
much call for C in those days) and Educational sales of the Beeb
a Pascal would have been a fine choice.   It would have run a little
faster too.

>of Acorn's programmers went to Cambridge University, and BCPL was
>by far the best general purpose language on the mainframe (IBM 370).

And I thought higher education broadened people's horizon's :-)

Seriously, I am old enough to know a little about Richards et al's
work in and around BCPL.  The language undoubtedly played a respectable
role in 70's Comp. Sci., but was a pretty funny choice for a mass market
machine.  I guess ease of porting of the CINTCODE environment
must have played a significant role also...

	Andrew