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Multipop(ID:3706/mul013)

Hybrid Operating System and Programming Language 

alternate simple view
Country: United Kingdom
Designed 1994

Hybrid Operating System and Programming Language at Edinburgh

The Multipop Timesharing System
It is conventional to regard an operating system and a programming language implementation as being distinct entities. There are however distinct advantages to an integrated approach, since many of the constructs required for each are in fact common, for example storage management and interpreting user commands . The Multipop, timesharing system, first operational in late 1967, was based on the concurrently developed implemenation of POP-2.
Making POP-2 be the command language for the operating system and the only language available to the user made it possible, on a relatively cheap computer (64K 24-bit words of memory), to support the time-shared development of quite complex programs, with relatively rapid responses to user interactions. Incorporating device handlers `cannibalised' from the earlier MiniMac project, it supported much of the symbolic computation work at Edinburgh until the early-70's.

Using a functional language with a properly implemented concept of closure is of considerable benefit in supporting the presentation of devices such as disks to a user in an encapsulated form . Multipop employed no conventional hardware protection mechanisms; instead its security was guaranteed by the fact that access to system resources was obtained via closures of device access functions, and on built in restrictions on code-generation embodied in the compiler. Being system-generated and opaque, there was way in which a user could obtain inappropriate access to system resources via these closures. Moreover, as compared with a context switch, a closure is a light-weight means of encapsulating capabilities.


People:
Structures:
Related languages
POP-1 → Multipop   Written using
Multipop → POP-2   Subsystem
References:
  • Pullin (1967) Pullin, D.J.S. "A Plain Man's Guide to Multi-POP implementation" Mini-MAC Report No.2. Edinburgh: Department of Machine Intelligence and Perception 1967
  • Barrow et al (1971) Barrow, H. G.; Michie, D.; Popplestone, R. J. and S. H. Salter "Tokyo-Edinburgh dialogue on robots in artificial intelligence research" Abstract Extract: Which language do you use Extract: Multipop
          in (1971) The Computer Journal 14(1) 1971
  • (1994) Archived discussion of POP history on comp.lang.pop - Ian Rogers, A Sloman
          in (1971) The Computer Journal 14(1) 1971
  • Popplestone (1999) Popplestone, R "The Early Development of POP" Extract: How I came to create POP-1 Extract: The development of POP-2 Extract: The development of MultiPOP
          in (1971) The Computer Journal 14(1) 1971
  • Popplestone (1999) Popplestone, R "The Multipop Timesharing System" online copy retrieved November 1999 Online copy Extract: Archived copy
          in (1971) The Computer Journal 14(1) 1971
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