Henry Bent <henry.r.bent@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 22 Nov 2021 at 21:31, Mary Ann Horton <mah@mhorton.net> 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?
>
> 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.
>
> -Henry
PL/1 compiler for Linux: http://www.iron-spring.com/
PL/1 front end for GCC (looks dead): pl1gcc.sourceforge.net
"Expect some more releases soon" and the last release was 0.0.whatever, in 2007. I think that speaks volumes as to how popular PL/I is today. That being said, the Linux compiler does appear to be actively developed, and I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that the two platforms for active development are Linux and OS/2 (!).
I have a vague recollection of installing and playing with a PL/I compiler demo for Ultrix, but I figured that the language was essentially dead at that point. I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised that there are still people using it, as this is the world of "we wrote the specifications in 1975 and there's no reason to update them," but I have a hard time imagining those companies being truly competitive, and an even harder time imagining them attracting talent under retirement age.
-Henry