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From: "Thomas Paulsen" <thomas.paulsen@firemail.de>
To: "Mary Ann Horton" <mah@mhorton.net>
Cc: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org
Subject: Re: [TUHS] Book Recommendation
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2021 22:54:26 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <d5c635f412e50be3740bf13c2380d799@firemail.de> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <b355e6b8-720d-3078-d54a-2beb5ff79bd4@mhorton.net>

Hi,

I remember that PL-1 was regarded in the 70-80ths as a superior programming language, incorporating the best concepts of the languages Mary enumerated. There even was a PL-1 inspired SPL language by siemens for the bs2000 mainframe os including bit fields etc. for system programming like C. Large parts of the start-amadeus ticketing-software were written in SPL. Thus PL-1 and its derivates were very high-ranked in the 70ths and 80ths, regarded as the ultimate ratio of the programming languages by many mainframe experts in those days.
I mean we are now entering the mainframe horizon, totally different to our UNIX and C mini computer, workstation and PC world we all are firm with.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PL/I was my favorite mainframe programming language my last two years as

an undergrad. I liked how it incorporated ideas from FORTRAN, ALGOL, and

COBOL. My student job was to enhance a PL/I package for a History professor.


As a grad student in 1976, my first job as a TA was to teach PL/I to 
undergrads. There were a lot of business students in the class. We 
thought PL/I was likely to be the future of business programming, as a 
better alternative to COBOL.

I was turned on to V6 UNIX and C in 1977, and I forgot all about PL/I.

     Mary Ann

On 11/16/2021 6:57 AM, Douglas McIlroy wrote:
> 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




  parent reply	other threads:[~2021-11-23 22:27 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 75+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2021-11-16 14:57 Douglas McIlroy
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 [this message]
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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