<language> (Basic CPL) A British systems language developed by Richards in 1969 and descended from CPL (Combined Programming Language). BCPL is low-level, typeless and block-structured, and provides only one-dimensional arrays. Case is not significant, but conventionally reserved words begin with a capital. Flow control constructs include: If-Then, Test-Then-Else, Unless-Do, While-Do, Until-Do, Repeat, Repeatwhile, Repeatuntil, For-to-By-Do, Loop, Break and Switchon-Into-Case-Default-Endcase. BCPL has conditional expressions, pointers, and manifest constants. It has both procedures: 'Let foo(bar) Be command' and functions: 'Let foo(bar) = expression'. 'Valof $(..Resultis..$)' causes a compound command to produce a value. Parameters are call-by-value. Program segments communicate via the global vector where system and user variables are stored in fixed numerical locations in a single array. The first BCPL compiler was written in AED. BCPL was used to implement the TRIPOS operating system, which was subsequently reincarnated as AmigaDOS. ["BCPL - The Language and its Compiler", Martin Richards & Colin Whitby-Stevens, Cambridge U Press 1979]. See OCODE, INTCODE. Oxford BCPL differed slightly: Test-Ifso-Ifnot, and section brackets in place of $( $). The original INTCODE interpreter for BCPL is available for Amiga, Unix, MS-DOS BCPL/">ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/amiga/programming/languages/BCPL/. A BCPL compiler bootstrap kit with an INTCODE interpreter in C was written by Ken Yap <ken@syd.dit.csiro.au>. (1995-03-26)

Basic / BBN Combined Programming Language (Reference: BBN)

BCPL ("Basic Combined Programming Language") is a procedural, imperative, and structured programming language. Originally intended for writing compilers for other languages, BCPL is no longer in common use. However, its influence is still felt because a stripped down and syntactically changed version of BCPL, called B, was the language on which the C programming language was based. BCPL introduced several features of many modern programming languages, including using curly braces to delimit code blocks. BCPL was first implemented by Martin Richards of the University of Cambridge in 1967.