MAPL(ID:8178/)

Language for building relational models of the world

W. Martin, MIT Automatic Programming Group MIT as part of Project Mac Protosystem I
References:
  • Project MAC Annual Progress Report No. 10, Automatic Programming Division, MIT, Cambridge, Mass. Dec. 1973 view details
  • Leavenworth, Burt M.; Sammet, Jean E. "An overview of nonprocedural languages" pp1-12 view details Abstract: This paper attempts to describe some of the basic characteristics and issues involving the class of programming languages commonly referred to as ?nonprocedural? or ?very high level?. The paper discusses major issues such as terminology, relativeness, and arbitrary sequencing. Five features of nonprocedural languages are described, and a number of specific languages are discussed briefly. A short history of the subject is included.
    Extract: MAPL anf Protosystem1
    [The[ MIT Automatic Programming Group under W. Martin […] is
    developing several levels of language within the framework of a system called Protosystem I (Project MAC, 1973). One of these is MAPL, which is a language for building relational models of the world.
    The latter is considered to be made up of a collection of objects which are divided into subsets and where the concept "a kind of" is allowed. A significant part of their approach is the use of a questionnaire which is carefully designed for a particular specialized application area. The user will answer the questions, and also communicate more information about the details of his problem in a "natural English". From this information the system will translate to successively lower levels of language for eventual execution. It is  expected that this process will be iterative in the sense that the user may be asked for further details after an initial processing of the questionnaire information. Furthermore, the user will be given the opportunity to determine that the program generated by the system is what he really wants; this is deemed essential because the user is specifying the "what" and the system is determining the "how".
          in Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN symposium on Very high level languages, March 28-29, 1974, Santa Monica, California, United States view details