Re: [COFF] [TUHS] Book Recommendation - COFF

24 Nov 2021

[-TUHS, +COFF]

On Tue, Nov 23, 2021 at 3:00 AM Henry Bent &lt;henry.r.bent(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

...
  On Mon, 22 Nov 2021 at 21:31, Mary Ann Horton
&lt;mah(a)mhorton.net&gt; wrote:

  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.

 What language were the PL/I compilers written in?

The only PL/I compiler I have access to is, somewhat ironically, the
Multics PL/1 compiler. It is largely self-hosting; more details can be
found here: https://multicians.org/pl1.html (Note Doug's name appears
prominently.)

Wikipedia claims that IBM is still developing a PL/I compiler, which I
...
  suppose I have no reason to disbelieve, but I'm
very curious as to who is
 using it and for what purpose.

I imagine most of it is legacy code in a mainframe environment, similarly
to COBOL. I can't imagine that many folks are considering new development
in PL/1 other than in retro/hobbyist environments and some mainframe shops
where there's a heavy existing PL/I investment.

        - Dan C.