Multilingual programming (was Re: Litton Industries Monrobot XI computers available)

From: blstuart_at_bellsouth.net <(blstuart_at_bellsouth.net)>
Date: Wed Feb 26 18:35:01 2003

In message <3E5D4EA2.5080309_at_aconit.org>, Hans B Pufal writes:
>Unlike BASIC, PAF was designed so that its
>key words could be easily changed to different languages and on the fly
>during one progam, a feature I have not seen in any other language.

At the 1981 National Computer Conference (US), Grace Hopper told
a story about the A0 compiler she and her collegues did on the
UNIVAC. Part of the motivation for this program was to settle
the question of whether a computer could write a program for
itself. So the thing we now understand to be a programming
language was made as close to a natural language as they were
able to do at the time. Every statement consisted of a subject
a verb and an object followed by a period. (You can probably
begin to see how this work influenced the development of COBOL.)
Anyway, to demonstrate the flexibility of this technique, they
had both English and German versions. However, since it was a
US military sponsored project and since it was rather soon after
WWII, the German version caused a minor freak-out on the part of
some of the military brass. It was quickly shoved in a corner
and was lost in the mists of time.

Brian L. Stuart
Received on Wed Feb 26 2003 - 18:35:01 GMT