ALGOL 68RS(ID:1808/alg045)

Extended RS Algol 

Royal Signals and Radar Establishment, Malvern UK. An extension of ALGOL 68 supporting function closures. Has been ported to Multics and VAX/VMS.

Used to write FLEX system for PERQ, also used to write ELLA portable description language, ALGOL 68 RS to C translator shipped as part of ELLA

Joint effort of Bath, Ofort and RSRE, first implemented on ICL and part sponsored by them. Became corporatised as

The systems development group at SWURCC, including the compiler
people, were split off to form Praxis. Praxis were funded by RSRE/DRA
to produce an ALGOL 68RS to C translator ("ctrans") in order to port
the ELLA (hardware description language) compiler and simulator to Sun
Sparc and Apollo workstations.


Praxis Electronic Design (which looked after ELLA, amongst other
things) was split off and sold, but went bust after a couple of years.
DRA decided then to make ELLA public domain, and funded some more work
from Praxis (ie me) to improve the portability of Ctrans and its
generated code, and to make it ANSI C compliant. DRA now own the
rights, and have made Ctrans publically available as part of their
ELLA distribution.


Missing features:
indicators to be declared before use
no sema
scopes not checked

Extra features:
mode vector indexable structures forall elements of array
no transient name restriction
modular compilation

Related languages
ALGOL 68-R => ALGOL 68RS   Evolution of
ALGOL 68RS => RS Algol   Evolution of
References:
  • Survey of Viable ALGOL 68 Implementations (AB52.3.1 in Algol Bulletin 52) view details Abstract: Survey Of Viable ALGOL, 68 Implementations
         This Survey has been restricted to implementations which you can actually obtain and use.   Each of them has an identifiable person or organisation responsible for its maintenance, and most have been used on at least one site other than that where it was developed.
         Most of the column headings are self-explanatory.  "Deviation" means that, it  is  possible to  write some  program,  valid and  with defined meaning both in  the given implementation  and according to  the Revised Report,  which will provide results different  from those defined by the Revised Report. Under "Money", "nominal" usually means under $200, "yes" means a realistic commercial rate.  "MC Test" means that it has been tested using the MC Test Set (see AB 44.1.2) and that the implemented claims it ran correctly.  In all cases, the people listed in the last column should be able to provide further information.
  • Greenwood, J. R. "Comments on 'A View from the Trenches'. Ada vs. Modula-2 vs. Praxis." view details
          in SIGPLAN Notices 21(05) May 1986 view details