🚀 go-pugleaf

On 8 Mar 91 20:25:16 GMT, richard@praxis.co.uk (Richard Wendland) said:

richard> chl@cs.man.ac.uk (Charles Lindsey) writes:

chl> In fact, I understand that the ALGOL 68RS system does in fact
chl> implement the Bekic proposal, or something close to it.

richard> Only one of the ALGOL 68RS implementations, on the RSRE Flex
richard> architecture, permits procedures without the normal scope
richard> restrictions.  I don't know of the Bekic proposal; the
richard> implementation on Flex uses normal ALGOL 68 syntax, only the
richard> scope rules being relaxed.

richard> The Flex architecture, designed around 1978, is geared towards
richard> efficient implementation by micro-code, as on a Perq. [ ... ]
richard> It's a shame Flex did not receive more publicity, as it
richard> implemented features much discussed later.

Flex is a wonderful thing. The Perq too, a bit less. Both have
disappeared without trace.  Reasons?

* They are not MSDOS/8086 compatible. :-) :-(.

* They are not BSD/SysV compatible. :-) :-(.

* The Perq's a dog in terms of performance (not "RISC" :->).

* Three Rivers did not get bought out by HP like Apollo.

* Every week one of the few surviving Algol 68 programmers dies.

* RSRE is a very secretive military installation; the Flex was, I
suspect, mainly designed for highly secure military purposes.

At times I suspect that the following two reasons are also relevant:

* The Perq was licensed by ICL. I don't believe in superstition, but ICL
sponsorship used to be something like a kiss of death. :-) :-(.

* The few surviving British computer architects have never been good at
PR, nor have ever given a damn about it (look at Manchester's MUSS for
another example). That's why so few are left. :-( :-).

At times I suspect they are not, as for example also MDL and KeyKOS (in
a sense the USA alter ego of Flex; written in PL/1, running on 370s :->)
are sunk almost without trace.


I renew here my usual call: if the authors of Algol 68C or Algol 68RS
are listening, please get in touch with me. I want to try to persuade
you to release those compilers to the FSF.

If either Algol 68C or Algol 68RS were GPL'ed and posted to comp.sources
:-) I think a lot of people, especially in the USA, would be literally
stunned, and Algol 68 would become very much popular.

The dream of a lifetime...
--
Piercarlo Grandi                   | ARPA: pcg%uk.ac.aber@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth        | UUCP: ...!mcsun!ukc!aber-cs!pcg
Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, UK | INET: pcg@aber.ac.uk