BCPL
(redirected from Basic Combined Programming Language)Also found in: Acronyms.
BCPL
(language)(Basic CPL) A British systems language developed by
Richards in 1969 and descended from CPL (Combined
Programming Language). BCPL is low-level, typeless and
block-structured, and provides only one-dimensional arrays.
Case is not significant, but conventionally reserved words
begin with a capital. Flow control constructs include:
If-Then, Test-Then-Else, Unless-Do, While-Do, Until-Do,
Repeat, Repeatwhile, Repeatuntil, For-to-By-Do, Loop, Break
and Switchon-Into-Case-Default-Endcase. BCPL has conditional
expressions, pointers, and manifest constants. It has both
procedures: 'Let foo(bar) Be command' and functions: 'Let
foo(bar) = expression'. 'Valof $(..Resultis..$)' causes a
compound command to produce a value. Parameters are
call-by-value.
Program segments communicate via the global vector where system and user variables are stored in fixed numerical locations in a single array.
The first BCPL compiler was written in AED. BCPL was used to implement the TRIPOS operating system, which was subsequently reincarnated as AmigaDOS.
["BCPL - The Language and its Compiler", Martin Richards & Colin Whitby-Stevens, Cambridge U Press 1979].
See OCODE, INTCODE.
Oxford BCPL differed slightly: Test-Ifso-Ifnot, and section brackets in place of $( $).
The original INTCODE interpreter for BCPL is available for Amiga, Unix, MS-DOS ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/amiga/programming/languages/BCPL/.
A BCPL compiler bootstrap kit with an INTCODE interpreter in C was written by Ken Yap <ken@syd.dit.csiro.au>.
Program segments communicate via the global vector where system and user variables are stored in fixed numerical locations in a single array.
The first BCPL compiler was written in AED. BCPL was used to implement the TRIPOS operating system, which was subsequently reincarnated as AmigaDOS.
["BCPL - The Language and its Compiler", Martin Richards & Colin Whitby-Stevens, Cambridge U Press 1979].
See OCODE, INTCODE.
Oxford BCPL differed slightly: Test-Ifso-Ifnot, and section brackets in place of $( $).
The original INTCODE interpreter for BCPL is available for Amiga, Unix, MS-DOS ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/amiga/programming/languages/BCPL/.
A BCPL compiler bootstrap kit with an INTCODE interpreter in C was written by Ken Yap <ken@syd.dit.csiro.au>.
This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)
BCPL
(Basic Combined Programming Language) A language developed in the late 1960s for creating compilers for other programming languages. BCPL was the grandfather of C because B, a version of BCPL, was the precursor to C. See B and C.Copyright © 1981-2019 by The Computer Language Company Inc. All Rights reserved. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.