PAL—a language designed for teaching programming linguistics

ABSTRACT

This paper describes PAL—a new computer language. Given the fact that new languages seem to appear in computer literature at the rate of several per month, it seems incumbent on one who creates a new language to justify having done so. In the present case, there are two important considerations: control and specification. Let us consider each of these in turn. By virtue of our having designed PAL, it is ours. There is no PAL Users Group or Committee of Vested Interests concerned with retaining upward compatibility with what was done last year (or last month). This doesn't mean we change the specifications of the language every few weeks (our students are, in a real sense, our Committee of Vested Interests), but it does mean we can make decisions on changes solely on technical grounds. More important, though, we can design the language to meet the criteria we think important. For example, the language almost demands interpretive execution. Since no one writes production programs in PAL we are able to put up with inefficiencies in the implementation that would otherwise be intolerable. Thus we have designed our own language so that we will have control over it.

REFERENCES

• 1: Strachey C unpublished manuscript
• 2: Weizenbaum J The FUNARG problem explained unpublished manuscript
• 3: Alonzo Church, The Calculi of Lambda Conversion. (AM-6) (Annals of Mathematics Studies), Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1985
• 4: Curry H B and Feys R Combinatory logic vol 1 North Holland Publishing Co Amsterdam 1958
• 5: Landin P J The mechanical evaluation of expressions The Computer Journal 6 4 Jan 1964 pp 308-320
• 6: P. J. Landin, A correspondence between ALGOL 60 and Church's Lambda-notations: Part II, Communications of the ACM, v.8 n.3, p.158-167, March 1965 [doi>10.1145/363791.363804]
• 7: Alber K Oliva P and Urschler G Concrete Syntax of PL/I IBM Laboratory Vienna Technical Report TR25.084 Mar 15 1968
• 8: Alber K and Oliva P Translation of PL/I into Abstract Syntax IBM Laboratory Vienna Technical Report TR25.086 Mar 15 1968
• 9: Richards M BCPL reference manual Project MAC Memorandum M-352-1 February 16 1968
• 10: Evans A PAL—A reference manual and a primer MIT Department of Electrical Engineering Feb 1968
• 11: P. J. Landin, The next 700 programming languages, Communications of the ACM, v.9 n.3, p.157-166, March 1966 [doi>10.1145/365230.365257]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.2 DATABASE MANAGEMENT
      H.2.3 Languages

          Nouns: PAL

Additional Classification:
  J. Computer Applications
  J.5 ARTS AND HUMANITIES
      Subjects: Linguistics

General Terms:
Design, Languages, Management