[TUHS] PL.8 [was Re: mental architecture models, Anyone ever heard of teaching a case study of Initial Unix?

[Charles H Sauer (he/him)]

On 7/6/2024 8:39 PM, John Levine wrote:
> It appears that Charles H Sauer (he/him) <sauer at technologists.com> said:
>> I like the 80% explanation, but suspect PL.8 was really named PL.8 to go
>> along with the 801 processor architecture defined in Building 801 aka
>> Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights. There are probably
>> living Yorktown alumni that could be definitive.
> 
> John Cocke said in a paper in IBM J R&D V44 #1/2, Jan 2000, p 50:
> 
>   The result [of the language design] was the PL.8 language, the
>   ".8" implying that it had about 80% of the richness of PL/I.
>   PL.8 bore the same relation to PL/I as the 801 architecture
>   had to System/370.
> 
> Not gonna argue with him.

John C isn't around to say one way or the other. Perhaps he really did 
say that, but ...
o That paper seems to be a reprint of the 1990 IBM J R&D V34 paper
o I suspect co-author Vicky wrote 80% of the paper and wrote the 80% 
sentence. (I had substantial contact with Vicky at IBM. She and Peter 
became my neighbors for a while after I left IBM. Peter was also a judge 
at cat shows and I would see him at those.)
o Marc Auslander and Marty Hopkins seemed to be the driving forces 
behind the PL.8 compiler and language. I think their June 1982 "An 
Overview of the PL.8 Compiler" SIGPLAN Notices 17 (6) was the first 
external notice of the compiler and language.
o Radin's 1976 "The 801 minicomputer" eventually appeared externally in 
March 1982 SIGPLAN Notices 17 (4). That paper refers to the "801 
compiler" and alludes to differences from PL/I that typified PL.8, e.g., 
offsets vs. pointers, but doesn't name the language.
o ".8" implying 80% of the richness of PL/I sounds revisionist

Far afield from TUHS...

Charlie
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