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From: jmg@cernvax.UUCP (jmg)
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: Re: What's BCPL?
Message-ID: <265@cernvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 27-Jan-86 11:15:25 EST
Article-I.D.: cernvax.265
Posted: Mon Jan 27 11:15:25 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Feb-86 07:18:52 EST
References: <410@wlbr.UUCP>
Reply-To: jmg@cernvax.UUCP (Mike Gerard, DD Division, CERN.)
Organization: CERN, Geneva/Switzerland
Lines: 21

In article <410@wlbr.UUCP> steve@wlbr.UUCP writes:
>The term "BCPL" is used frequently in the Developer's manuals and here
>on the net. Other than seeing the shifted pointers called BPTR's, I
>would appreciate an explanation of what this is all about. Is this all
>Sun-related?
>
>Also- Someone commented about device drivers must "be BCPL code".
>Can someone clarify? 

In the beginning was CPL: Cambridge (later Combined) Programming Language.
It was invented by people at Cambridge and London Universities. It was so
all-embracing that practically anything was allowed.
Martin Richards, of Cambridge University, cut it down to size as BCPL: the
B stands for Basic.

It is like C in many respects, but has no types at all, merely the concept
of a word as the unit. Martin used it to write a simple machine-independent
operating system called Tripos, which Metacomco (I think) used as the
basis for the Amiga OS.

I do not think it is directly related to B, which was a predecessor of C.