C integral types [was Re: Semi-OT: Why Kids Can't use Computers] (fwd)

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Thu, Aug 15, 2013 at 08:26:25PM -0400, Stewart C. Russell wrote:
> There are a surprising number of UK non-computer-science types for whom
> their first compiled language was one of these C-precursors: BCPL. It
> was possible to write a particularly tiny compiler for the language, and
> there were versions for the BBC Micro (6502) and the Amstrad CPC (Z80)
> which ran from a 16 KB EPROM.
> 
> It was also the first language taught at Cambridge to all Computer
> Science students. It later became the source of much ire in the Amiga
> world, as early (buggy) versions of AmigaDOS were basically the Tripos
> OS developed at Cambridge, entirely in BCPL.

It may have had bugs, but it sure worked well.  I found DOS running a
single applications crashed more often than AmigaDOS did multitasking
on hardware with no memory protection.  It was pretty darn impressive.

> Martin Richards still plugs along with BCPL development. He's written an
> entire book teaching programming on the Raspberry Pi using BCPL: “Young
> Persons Guide to BCPL Programming on the Raspberry Pi”
> http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mr10/bcpl4raspi.pdf

-- 
Len Sorensen
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