The name was PL/1 but got changed. Before PL/1 it was NPL, then MPPL. PL/C was fast, but we had students resorting to the "optimizing" compiler when they couldn't find a bug using PL/C or Checkout.
-- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 ________________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Assembler List <[email protected]> on behalf of Phil Smith III <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2018 5:03 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: An idea I got when researching a bug - warnings when a specific register is changed Hobart Spitz wrote: >I went to Cornell, where PL/C was developed. In my freshman class, anyone >who already knew a programming language (I knew 3 then) was given work in >PL/1 (as then called), using PL/C, instead of in FORTRAN. I think we were >one of the first classes, if not the very first, to beta test it. Being >skeptical of compiler output has been a helpful skill ever since. >Where did you use PL/C? PL/C was a one-step version of PL/I (note that the short name is officially "PL/I", not "PL/1", even though the full name is "Programming Language/One"; go figure): no compile/link/run, just "compile&run". This was at University of Waterloo. My dad ran the Arts Computing Office, which was what it sounded like: a small computing centre (Canadian spelling!) for Arts students, so they didn't have to brave the CS types in the Math building. I remember that PL/C was from Cornell, now that you mention it; he had lots of contacts there. His research was working on concordances of scholarly works (first on OS/360, then on VM, then after he retired, on his PC) and we made many trips there for him to work with his colleagues. At the time, the ACO had a Xerox 530, which they'd bought because the price was right and Xerox was saying "Hey, we're Xerox, we won't abandon you". Of course a couple of years later they said "Never mind, we're out of the midrange business". Then a decade or so later they started selling PCs, with the slogan "We're Xerox, we won't abandon you". He laughed and laughed. Anyway, it was a big deal for me to have a chance to program at the age of 14--nowadays, of course, that's starting late! ...phsiii
