Elliot Mark II AUTOCODE(ID:3052/ell004)Version II of the Elliot AutocodeVersion II of Hoare's Elliot Autocode People: Hardware:
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References: in Goodman, Richard (ed) "Annual Review in Automatic Programming" (2) 1961 Pergamon Press, Oxford view details The remaining papers in the Scientific section are "Interference with an ALGOL procedure," by H. Rutishauser, "MADCAP II" by D. H. Bradford and M. B. Wells, and "The ELLIOTT 803 Autocode, Mark II," by J. Pym and G. K. Findlay: the first of these describes a method of including monitoring in an ALGOL procedure while the other two are essentially programming manuals for the respective languages. The paper on MADCAP (the compiler for MANIAC II at Los Alamos) reveals some interesting features, notably the ability to include constants without generating any actual program, by statements like "C is 49-186," or "I is 18," the recognition of the customary notation for powers of a function (e.g. cos2 x), and the various elements of "tidying up" which are introduced into the compiled program. in The Computer Bulletin June 1962 view details General Information Pegasus and Sirius are the names of computers made by Ferranti Ltd., of Manchester. Pegasus is a medium-sized, medium-speed machine with a magnetic drum store of 8192* words capacity, working in fixed-point binary arithmetic, with a word length of 39 binary digits which corresponds to 11 decimal places. Sirius is a more compact machine, working in decimal. The store is normally 4000 words but is extendable to a theoretical maximum of 10000 words, a word holding 10 decimal digits. Both machines use paper tape as their input and output media, using the code given in the Appendix. The autocodes used for the two machines are practically identical and everything in this chapter applies to both unless otherwise stated. in The Computer Bulletin June 1962 view details The preface states that "this book is intended to serve as an introduction to the programming of automatic computers." The first 24 pages present such an introduction, apparently assuming that this is the reader's first contact with a stored-program digital Computer. Part II, which makes up about 60 percent of this short volume, consists of three chapters, each of which describes a different autocode. The word "autocode" as used in England corresponds roughly to "compiler language') in the United States. The authors apparently consider an autocode to be machine-dependent, in contrast to a "universal computing language" like Algol, which is machine independent. The three autocodes discussed are for the Pegasus-Sirius, the Elliott 803, and the Ferranti Mercury. The machines themselves are not described here in any detail. They are all rather small machines, and are not of very great general interest. Unfortunately, the Same is true of their autocodes. The Mercury autocode is treated at greatest length and in greatest detail. It is an interesting system, but its interest is now mostly historical, illustrating some of the early work of Brooker and his colleagues at Manchester. Most of the material in this book will be of interest only to the devoted specialist and perhaps to the historian in the field of computer languages. A final section of the book presents a 14-page discussion of Algol. It is a good but very brief resume of the language. in The Computer Bulletin June 1962 view details [321 programming languages with indication of the computer manufacturers, on whose machinery the appropriate languages are used to know. Register of the 74 computer companies; Sequence of the programming languages after the number of manufacturing firms, on whose plants the language is implemented; Sequence of the manufacturing firms after the number of used programming languages.] in The Computer Bulletin June 1962 view details The exact number of all the programming languages still in use, and those which are no longer used, is unknown. Zemanek calls the abundance of programming languages and their many dialects a "language Babel". When a new programming language is developed, only its name is known at first and it takes a while before publications about it appear. For some languages, the only relevant literature stays inside the individual companies; some are reported on in papers and magazines; and only a few, such as ALGOL, BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN, and PL/1, become known to a wider public through various text- and handbooks. The situation surrounding the application of these languages in many computer centers is a similar one. There are differing opinions on the concept "programming languages". What is called a programming language by some may be termed a program, a processor, or a generator by others. Since there are no sharp borderlines in the field of programming languages, works were considered here which deal with machine languages, assemblers, autocoders, syntax and compilers, processors and generators, as well as with general higher programming languages. The bibliography contains some 2,700 titles of books, magazines and essays for around 300 programming languages. However, as shown by the "Overview of Existing Programming Languages", there are more than 300 such languages. The "Overview" lists a total of 676 programming languages, but this is certainly incomplete. One author ' has already announced the "next 700 programming languages"; it is to be hoped the many users may be spared such a great variety for reasons of compatibility. The graphic representations (illustrations 1 & 2) show the development and proportion of the most widely-used programming languages, as measured by the number of publications listed here and by the number of computer manufacturers and software firms who have implemented the language in question. The illustrations show FORTRAN to be in the lead at the present time. PL/1 is advancing rapidly, although PL/1 compilers are not yet seen very often outside of IBM. Some experts believe PL/1 will replace even the widely-used languages such as FORTRAN, COBOL, and ALGOL.4) If this does occur, it will surely take some time - as shown by the chronological diagram (illustration 2) . It would be desirable from the user's point of view to reduce this language confusion down to the most advantageous languages. Those languages still maintained should incorporate the special facets and advantages of the otherwise superfluous languages. Obviously such demands are not in the interests of computer production firms, especially when one considers that a FORTRAN program can be executed on nearly all third-generation computers. The titles in this bibliography are organized alphabetically according to programming language, and within a language chronologically and again alphabetically within a given year. Preceding the first programming language in the alphabet, literature is listed on several languages, as are general papers on programming languages and on the theory of formal languages (AAA). As far as possible, the most of titles are based on autopsy. However, the bibliographical description of sone titles will not satisfy bibliography-documentation demands, since they are based on inaccurate information in various sources. Translation titles whose original titles could not be found through bibliographical research were not included. ' In view of the fact that nany libraries do not have the quoted papers, all magazine essays should have been listed with the volume, the year, issue number and the complete number of pages (e.g. pp. 721-783), so that interlibrary loans could take place with fast reader service. Unfortunately, these data were not always found. It is hoped that this bibliography will help the electronic data processing expert, and those who wish to select the appropriate programming language from the many available, to find a way through the language Babel. We wish to offer special thanks to Mr. Klaus G. Saur and the staff of Verlag Dokumentation for their publishing work. Graz / Austria, May, 1973 in The Computer Bulletin June 1962 view details |