From: Douglas McIlroy <douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu>
To: TUHS main list <tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org>
Subject: Re: [TUHS] Book Recommendation
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2021 09:57:55 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAKH6PiXtVetBZbyvOiWZFSTvNebSTEuaYkOoUx4KPg4wtdvN8g@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
The following remark stirred old memories. Apologies for straying off
the path of TUHS.
> I have gotten the impression that [PL/I] was a language that was beloved by no one.
As I was a designer of PL/I, an implementer of EPL (the preliminary
PL/I compiler used to build Multics), and author of the first PL/I
program to appear in the ACM Collected Algorithms, it's a bit hard to
admit that PL/I was "insignificant". I'm proud, though, of having
conceived the SIGNAL statement, which pioneered exception handling,
and the USES and SETS attributes, which unfortunately sank into
oblivion. I also spurred Bud Lawson to invent -> for pointer-chasing.
The former notation C(B(A)) became A->B->C. This was PL/I's gift to C.
After the ACM program I never wrote another line of PL/I.
Gratification finally came forty years on when I met a retired
programmer who, unaware of my PL/I connection, volunteered that she
had loved PL/I above all other programming languages.
Doug
next reply other threads:[~2021-11-16 14:59 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 75+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2021-11-16 14:57 Douglas McIlroy [this message]
2021-11-16 15:22 ` Richard Salz
2021-11-16 15:52 ` Ron Natalie
2021-11-23 2:28 ` Mary Ann Horton
2021-11-23 7:57 ` Henry Bent
2021-11-23 8:10 ` arnold
2021-11-23 8:28 ` Henry Bent
2021-11-23 17:26 ` Adam Thornton
2021-11-23 18:54 ` Ron Natalie
2021-11-23 19:04 ` Al Kossow
2021-11-23 19:39 ` Lawrence Stewart
2021-11-23 19:08 ` Ron Natalie
2021-11-23 21:54 ` Thomas Paulsen
2021-11-24 15:18 ` Richard Salz
2021-11-24 15:45 ` Larry McVoy
2021-11-24 18:34 ` Rich Morin
2021-11-24 18:40 ` Larry McVoy
2021-11-24 19:39 ` Clem Cole
2021-11-24 20:02 ` Larry McVoy
2021-11-26 19:49 ` [TUHS] AIX/SMIT (was Book Recommendation) Greg A. Woods
2021-11-25 10:26 ` [TUHS] Book Recommendation Tom Ivar Helbekkmo via TUHS
2021-11-25 12:20 ` [TUHS] AIX/SMIT (was Re: Book Recommendation) Stuart Remphrey
2021-11-24 20:13 ` [TUHS] Book Recommendation arnold
2021-11-24 20:18 ` Will Senn
2021-11-25 7:22 ` arnold
2021-11-24 20:15 ` Rob Pike
2021-11-24 20:21 ` joe mcguckin
2021-11-24 20:27 ` Rob Pike
2021-11-24 21:27 ` Richard Salz
2021-11-24 22:19 ` Charles Anthony
2021-11-24 22:29 ` [TUHS] PL/I stuff - was: " Will Senn
2021-11-24 23:00 ` Rob Pike
2021-11-24 23:13 ` Richard Salz
2021-11-25 1:48 ` Nelson H. F. Beebe
2021-11-25 2:03 ` George Michaelson
2021-11-25 14:47 ` Clem Cole
2021-11-26 22:20 ` Alan Glasser
2021-11-26 22:33 ` Alan Glasser
2021-11-27 0:23 ` Dennis Boone
2021-11-27 0:30 ` Larry McVoy
2021-11-27 0:47 ` Charles H. Sauer
2021-11-27 2:43 ` Alan Glasser
2021-11-27 0:56 ` Warner Losh
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2021-12-03 2:50 [TUHS] " Douglas McIlroy
2021-12-06 4:25 ` Adam Thornton
2021-12-06 4:42 ` Dan Halbert
2021-12-06 5:18 ` Charles H. Sauer
2021-11-24 15:50 Norman Wilson
2021-11-16 19:49 Douglas McIlroy
2021-11-16 20:02 ` Dan Cross
2021-11-16 23:16 ` Douglas McIlroy
2021-11-16 17:00 Douglas McIlroy
[not found] ` <CAKH6PiXinxBQGRqoeGMcG9CwTA5BNeU-LY164f-ZLYA4obsyuA@mail.g mail.com>
2021-11-16 18:47 ` John Foust via TUHS
2021-11-16 20:35 ` Bakul Shah
2021-12-02 21:35 ` Duncan Mak
2021-12-02 22:32 ` Bakul Shah
2021-12-02 22:34 ` Rob Pike
2021-11-16 3:16 Douglas McIlroy
2021-11-16 4:08 ` G. Branden Robinson
2021-11-16 14:56 ` Clem Cole
2021-11-16 15:37 ` Richard Salz
2021-11-16 15:50 ` Adam Thornton
2021-11-16 17:02 ` Will Senn
2021-11-16 21:38 ` John Cowan
2021-11-16 21:46 ` Will Senn
2021-11-16 18:27 ` Jon Steinhart
2021-11-16 18:44 ` Heinz Lycklama
2021-11-14 14:37 Clem Cole
2021-11-14 14:55 ` Dennis Boone
2021-11-14 16:35 ` Ralph Corderoy
2021-11-14 18:20 ` Larry McVoy
2021-11-14 18:44 ` Clem Cole
2021-11-14 18:52 ` Ralph Corderoy
2021-11-14 19:27 ` Clem Cole
2021-11-15 9:49 ` Ralph Corderoy
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