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Language peer sets for Mesa:
United States↑
United States/1977↑
Designed 1977 ↑
1970s languages ↑
Fourth generation↑
High Cold War↑
Multi-purpose ↑
Multi-purpose/1977↑
Multi-purpose/us ↑

Mesa(ID:769/mes001)

XPARC  Algol dialect 

alternate simple view
Country: United States
Designed 1977
Published: 1977
Sammet category: Multi-purpose

Xerox PARC, 1977.

System and application programming for proprietary hardware: Alto, Dolphin, Dorado and Dandelion.

Pascal-like syntax, Algol68-like semantics.

An early version was weakly typed. Mesa's modules with separately compilable definition and implementation parts directly led to Wirth's design for Modula. Threads, coroutines (fork/join), exceptions, and monitors. Type checking may be disabled.

Mesa was used internally by Xerox to develop ViewPoint, the Xerox Star, MDE, the Pilot Personal Operating System and the controller of a high-end copier.

It was released to a few universitites in 1985. Succeeded by Cedar.

People:
Related languages
ALGOL 68 → Mesa   Implementation
Pascal → Mesa   Influence
Mesa → Cedar   Evolution of
Mesa → Modula-2   Influence
Mesa → Modula-3   Influence
Mesa → Pascal*   Influence
Mesa → Protel   Influence
Mesa → Zuse   Influence
References:
  • Geschke et al, (1977) Geschke et al, "Early Experience with Mesa" Abstract DOI Extract: Introduction Extract: Modules
          in [ACM] (1977) [ACM] CACM 20(08) (Aug 1977)
  • Horsley, Thomas R. and Lynch, William C. (1979) Horsley, Thomas R. and Lynch, William C. "Pilot: A software engineering case study" Abstract
          in [Proceedings] (1979) Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Software Engineering 1979, Munich, Germany
  • Lauer, Hugh C.; Satterthwaite, Edwin H. (1979) Lauer, Hugh C.; Satterthwaite, Edwin H. "The impact of mesa on system design" Abstract Extract: Introduction
          in [Proceedings] (1979) Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Software Engineering 1979, Munich, Germany
  • Mitchell, J.G. et al, (1979) Mitchell, J.G. et al, "Mesa Language Manual", Xerox PARC, CSL-79-3 (Apr 1979).
          in [Proceedings] (1979) Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Software Engineering 1979, Munich, Germany
  • Lampson, Butler W.; Redell, David D. (1980) Lampson, Butler W.; Redell, David D. "Experience with processes and monitors in Mesa" Abstract Extract: Introduction and Replacing interrupts
          in [ACM] (1980) [ACM] CACM 23(02) February 1980
  • Redell, David D.; Dalal, Yogen K.; Horsley, Thomas (1980) Redell, David D.; Dalal, Yogen K.; Horsley, Thomas R.; Lauer, Hugh C.; Lynch, William C.; McJones, Paul R.; Murray, Hal G.; Purcell, Stephen C. "Pilot: an operating system for a personal computer" Abstract Extract: Introduction and Pilot Interface
          in [ACM] (1980) [ACM] CACM 23(02) February 1980
  • Lauer, Hugh C. (1981) Lauer, Hugh C. "Observations on the development of an operating system" Abstract
          in [ACM] (1981) Proceedings of the Eighth ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles, 1981, Pacific Grove, California, United States
  • Mitchell, James G. (1981) Mitchell, James G. "Mesa from the perspective of a designer turned user" Abstract DOI
          in [ACM SIGAPL] (1981) [ACM SIGAPL] APL Quote Quad 12(1) September 1981, Proceedings of the international conference on APL 1981, San Francisco, California, United States
  • Steensgaard-Madsen, J. (1981) Steensgaard-Madsen, J. " Statement-Oriented Approach to Data Abstraction" pp1-10 Extract: Introduction
          in (1981) TOPLAS 3(1) January 1981
  • Johnsson, Richard K.; Wick, John D. (1982) Johnsson, Richard K.; Wick, John D. "An overview of the mesa processor architecture" Abstract DOI
          in [ACM] (1982) [ACM] Proceedings of the first international symposium on Architectural support for programming languages and operating systems Palo Alto, California, United States March 1982
  • Lampson, Butler W. (1982) Lampson, Butler W. "Fast procedure calls" Abstract DOI
          in [ACM] (1982) [ACM] Proceedings of the first international symposium on Architectural support for programming languages and operating systems Palo Alto, California, United States March 1982
  • McDaniel, (1982) McDaniel, "Gene An analysis of a mesa instruction set using dynamic instruction frequencies" Abstract DOI
          in [ACM] (1982) [ACM] Proceedings of the first international symposium on Architectural support for programming languages and operating systems Palo Alto, California, United States March 1982
  • Nelson, Le Roy E and Harslem, Eric (1982) Nelson, Le Roy E and Harslem, Eric "A retrospective on the development of Star" Abstract
          in [Proceedings] (1982) Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Software Engineering 1982 , Tokyo, Japan
  • Spector, David (1982) Spector, David "Ambiguities and insecurities in Modula-2" pp43-51 Extract: Introduction
          in [SIGPLAN] (1982) SIGPLAN Notices 17(08) August 1982
  • Sweet, Richard E. and Sandman, James G. Jr. (1982) Sweet, Richard E. and Sandman, James G. Jr. "Empirical analysis of the mesa instruction set" Abstract DOI
          in [ACM] (1982) [ACM] Proceedings of the first international symposium on Architectural support for programming languages and operating systems Palo Alto, California, United States March 1982
  • R.P. Cook and T.J. LeBlanc (1983) R.P. Cook and T.J. LeBlanc "A Symbol Table Abstraction to Implement Languages with Explicit Scope Control" from IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, January 1983
          in [ACM] (1982) [ACM] Proceedings of the first international symposium on Architectural support for programming languages and operating systems Palo Alto, California, United States March 1982
  • Ichbiah, Jean D.; Barnes, John G.P.; Firth, Robert (1984) Ichbiah, Jean D.; Barnes, John G.P.; Firth, Robert J.; Woodger, Mike "Ada 83 Rationale" HONEYWELL, Systems and Research Center, Minneapolis, and ALSYS La Celle Saint Cloud, France January 31, 1984 Extract: Separate compilation
          in [ACM] (1982) [ACM] Proceedings of the first international symposium on Architectural support for programming languages and operating systems Palo Alto, California, United States March 1982
  • Sweet, Richard E. (1985) Sweet, Richard E. "The Mesa programming environment" Abstract
          in [LIPE 1985] (1985) SIGPLAN Notices 20(07) July 1985 (Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN 85 symposium on Language issues in programming environments)
  • Dewan, Prasun AND Solomon, Marvin (1990) Dewan, Prasun AND Solomon, Marvin "An approach to support automatic generation of user interfaces" Abstract DOI
          in (1990) TOPLAS 12(4) October 1990
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