What does BCPL stand for?

[John Creighton]

What does BCPL stand for is it one language or a family of languages.
My bust guess it the B C Programming Languages. But that is just a
short in the dark. I am also not sure what languages fall into this
family I think sometimes Java is included and maybe other times it is
not?

[Alan Balmer]

On 1 Apr 2005 14:28:52 -0800, Jo************@hotmail.com (John
Creighton) wrote:

What does BCPL stand for is it one language or a family of languages.
My bust guess it the B C Programming Languages. But that is just a
short in the dark. I am also not sure what languages fall into this
family I think sometimes Java is included and maybe other times it is
not?

It stands for Before C Programming Language ;-)

More seriously, look here:
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?BcplLanguage

--
Al Balmer
Balmer Consulting
re************************@att.net

[Mark McIntyre]

On 1 Apr 2005 14:28:52 -0800, in comp.lang.c ,
Jo************@hotmail.com (John Creighton) wrote:

What does BCPL stand for is it one language or a family of languages.
google is your friend.
My bust guess it the B C Programming Languages.

nope!

--
Mark McIntyre
CLC FAQ <http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html>
CLC readme: <http://www.ungerhu.com/jxh/clc.welcome.txt>

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[CBFalconer]

Alan Balmer wrote:

(John Creighton) wrote:

What does BCPL stand for is it one language or a family of
languages. My bust guess it the B C Programming Languages. But
that is just a short in the dark. I am also not sure what
languages fall into this family I think sometimes Java is
included and maybe other times it is not?

It stands for Before C Programming Language ;-)

Dang. Beat me to it.

--
Some useful references about C:
<http://www.ungerhu.com/jxh/clc.welcome.txt>
<http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html>
<http://benpfaff.org/writings/clc/off-topic.html>
<http://anubis.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n869/> (C99)
<http://www.dinkumware.com/refxc.html> (C-library}
<http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/> (GNU docs)

[JohnCreighton_]

Al Balmer
"> It stands for Before C Programming Language ;-)"

"Christopher Strachey designed CPL (CplLanguage), which begat BCPL,
which begat B (BeeLanguage), which begat C (CeeLanguage), which begat
C++ (CeePlusPlus), which begat Java (JavaLanguage), which begat C#
(CsharpLanguage), ..."
From: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?BcplLanguage

"One of the key ideas was to make space efficiency, as well as time
efficiency, a fundamental criterion. The vehicle for achieving this
goal was to use a systems implementation language from the BCPL family
rather than LISP. (Initially, MAPLE was implemented in B on a Honeywell
computer but soon the C language became the obvious widely-available
implementation language.)"
From: http://www.scg.uwaterloo.ca/SCG/history.html

"Most systems programming today is done in the BCPL family of
languages, which includes B, Bliss, and C. The beauty of these
languages is the modest cost with which they were able to take a great
leap forward from assembly language."
From:
http://www.db.informatik.uni-kassel..../mod3-int.html

"C# / .NET is not the first language of it type. It's been developed
with the experience obtained from Java, C++, COM/DCOM/ActiveX, Visual
Basic, and others. As such it has learned from the pitfalls of those
languages. For reference C++ is a culmination of the experience that
came out of SmallTalk and the BCPL-family of languages (C++ is the 4th
incarnation of the BCPL-family: BCPL, B, C, and C++)."
From:
http://www.codeguru.com/forum/printt...4&page=2&pp=15

Well, I had read on the web before that most common languages like C
C++ and Java are essentially the same and part of the BCPL family. I
don't think Java is usally included as part of this family. I think
usually just CPL BCPL B C. I think it is common to reffere to a family
of languages by mentioning just one language in it. I think this is a
rather vauge and misleading way to talk about languages. Anyway, the
following diagram should better explain the relationship between
languages:
http://faramir.rug.ac.be/courses/soo.../histlang.html
Looking at the diagram it is odd that I read that Paskel and Modula are
part of the ALGO family and B and C are part of a lower level family
(BCPL) and Lisp is at the opposite extreme. How can someone not
directly in the computer science field intelligently right about this
stuff when the experts don't seem to keep it straight.

[Arthur J. O'Dwyer]

On Sat, 1 Apr 2005 Jo************@hotmail.com wrote:

Al Balmer
"> It stands for Before C Programming Language ;-)"
(Note the winky ;-) and the date Al posted his response. BCPL actually
stands for "Basic" or "Bootstrap" CPL, where CPL stands for "Combined
Programming Language," since two universities collaborated in its design
(according to Wikipedia).)
"Christopher Strachey designed CPL (CplLanguage), which begat BCPL,
which begat B (BeeLanguage), which begat C (CeeLanguage), which begat
C++ (CeePlusPlus), which begat Java (JavaLanguage), which begat C#
(CsharpLanguage), ..."
From: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?BcplLanguage
True.
"One of the key ideas was to make space efficiency, as well as time
efficiency, a fundamental criterion. The vehicle for achieving this
goal was to use a systems implementation language from the BCPL family
rather than LISP. (Initially, MAPLE was implemented in B on a Honeywell
computer but soon the C language became the obvious widely-available
implementation language.)"
From: http://www.scg.uwaterloo.ca/SCG/history.html
True, although today there do exist Lisp-like ("functional programming")
languages with speeds comparable to C.
"Most systems programming today is done in the BCPL family of
languages, which includes B, Bliss, and C. The beauty of these
languages is the modest cost with which they were able to take a great
leap forward from assembly language."
From:
http://www.db.informatik.uni-kassel..../mod3-int.html
True, but note that "these days" seems to refer to the mid-1980s,
before the ISO C Standard was written. I doubt more than a hundred
people worldwide do anything with B these days.
"C# / .NET is not the first language of it type. It's been developed
with the experience obtained from Java, C++, COM/DCOM/ActiveX, Visual
Basic, and others. As such it has learned from the pitfalls of those
languages. For reference C++ is a culmination of the experience that
came out of SmallTalk and the BCPL-family of languages (C++ is the 4th
incarnation of the BCPL-family: BCPL, B, C, and C++)."
From:
http://www.codeguru.com/forum/printt...4&page=2&pp=15
True, though I doubt C++ takes much of anything from SmallTalk. IIRC,
the object model isn't even remotely similar. But anyone who talks about
experiences obtained from Visual Basic can't be expected to get OO history
right. ;-)
Well, I had read on the web before that most common languages like C
C++ and Java are essentially the same
Hah! False.
and part of the BCPL family.
True, but of course Java is part of the BCPL family in the same way
that monkeys are part of the shrew family --- it's been a /long/ time,
and the two don't look very similar at all anymore.
I don't think Java is usally included as part of this family. I think
usually just CPL BCPL B C. I think it is common to reffere to a family
of languages by mentioning just one language in it. I think this is a
rather vauge and misleading way to talk about languages.
All valid opinions.
Anyway, the
following diagram should better explain the relationship between
languages:
http://faramir.rug.ac.be/courses/soo.../histlang.html
It has some obvious oddities (obvious to me, anyway):
Algol isn't particularly related to Fortran as far as I know. Its
developers certainly knew Fortran, but the languages aren't very similar
at all (and by design!). BASIC should descend from Fortran, if you ask
me, and it certainly shouldn't be hung out there in space.
I don't know why C++ descends partly from Simula in that diagram;
maybe the diagrammer knew something I don't.
The arbitrary segregation of Ada as "object based" [sic] is really
weird.
The diagram is missing all the major languages developed after 1988
except for Java and C#, which points to the diagrammer's agenda. :)
Looking at the diagram it is odd that I read that Paskel and Modula are
part of the ALGO family
That's "Pascal," as in Blaise Pascal, and ALGOL, as in the star.
and B and C are part of a lower level family
(BCPL) and Lisp is at the opposite extreme. How can someone not
directly in the computer science field intelligently right about this
stuff when the experts don't seem to keep it straight.

Which experts have you seen who don't keep it straight? Of all the
references you've provided, every one is correct in the major points;
only the two C#-pushing sources get minor details wrong, and they're
obviously supposed to be taken with a grain of salt (since they're just
trying to show how C#.NET is better than other stuff).

Followups set to comp.lang.misc, since this seems likely to go even
further OT for comp.lang.c.

HTH,
-Arthur