On 2/16/25 11:54, Van Snyder via cctalk wrote: > On Sun, 2025-02-16 at 09:32 -0500, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: >> A lot of early "ALGOL" compilers did major subsetting because it was >> considered to hard to do the real language. > > IBM invented PL/1. IBM (or at least IBM Canada) wrote their excellent > Fortran compilers in a subset of PL/1 called PLIX, that is PL.9. I > guess a full language was too hard even for the inventors of the > language. At committee meetings I would pester the IBM delegate "When > are you going to make your compiler available for Linux on Intel?" His > answer was always NEVER!
A co-worker from long ago who was part of the IBM COMTRAN project once told me that the IBM PL/I group was the biggest bunch of misfits that had ever been assembled. I won't go any further on that, because I'd be engaging in gossip. --Chuck
