ROSTER OF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES 1968

Jean E. Sammet IBM Corp.

Cambridge, Mass. 02139 Following is a list of currently existing higher level languages

developed or reported in the United States which have been implemen-ted un at least one computer. While every effort has been made to make this list both complete and accurate, inevitably some errors of omission or commission have occurred. The author would appreciate notice of these errors for correction in future lists, subject to the disclaimer in the following paragraph.

or include all these differing versions. Another class of Inngunges omitted consists of those without assigned names, i.e., those iden-tifiable only by the system developer(s), name(s). Languages used for communicating with operating and time sharing systems nre nlso excluded.

The references cited are usually the most accessible, and nre not necessarily the best. Where possible, both the best reference nnd the most accessible reference have been given. A continuing useful source of information is SIGPLAN Notices, an informal monthly bulle-tin issued by SIGPLAN (ACM ~ecial Interest §.roup on frogramminU LAN-guages). For information, write to ACM SIGPLAN, 211 East 43rd St., New York, N.Y. 10017. SIGPLAN Notices also includes bulletins issued irregularly by groups interested in specific languages. This is in-dicated for each relevant language.

Certain items which might be considered as programming languages by some people have been omi t ted beca use they do not meet the cri ter-ia stated in an earlier paper (see Sammet, J. E., "Fundamental Con-cepts of Programming Languages", Computers and Automation, Vol. 16, No.2, Feb. 1967). In that paper, a programming ( - higher level) language is defined as a set of characters and rules for combining them which has the following characteristics: (I) the1language re-quires no knowledge of machine code by the user; (2) th~ language is significantly independent of a particular computer; (~) there is a one-many translation of instructions from source code to objectcode;

(4) the notation of the language is fairly natural to its problem area.

In some instances, there are many versions of a language on the list, all under differing names. No attempt has beer made to name

Where no contact has been shown, ei ther there is no clearly iden-tifiable' one, or the contact is the same as the names of or\lani za-tions shown with the cited reference(s). In some cases, the nuthor has exercised judgment and has supplied a probable contact. However, the individuals cited as contacts have not been contacted for per-mission to list them, and the author does not assume responsibility for their reaction to inquiries.

ADAM (A DAta M.anagement System)

A data-base handling system with facil-ities for some user defining of source language. Implemented on IBM 7030. / REF: Connors, T. L., "ADAM - A Gener-alized Da ta Management Sys tern", Proceed-ings of the Spring Joint Computer Con-ference, Vol. 28 (1966)

AED (Automated Kngineering Qesign) A generalized language, system, and set of concepts; includes AED Jr., AED 0, AED I. Based on ALGOL and an algorith-mic theory of language. Provides tech-niques for building processors for new languages. Implemented on a few compu-ters. / REF: Ross, D. T., "The Automa-ted Engineering Design (AED) Approach to Generalized Computer-Aided Design", Proceedings of the ACM 22nd National Conference (1967); and "AED Kit" (un-published) / CONTACT: Mr. Douglas Ross, M.I.T., 545 Tech. Sq., Cambridge, Mass.

AESOP (An Kvolutionary ~ystem for Qn-Line frocessing)

An on-line query system based primarily on the use of a display screen and light pen. Implemented on IBM 7030. / REF:

Summers, J. K. and Bennett, E., "AESOP - A Final Report: A Prototype On-Line Interactive Information Control System", Information System Science and Technolo-.llY, Walker, D. (ed.), Thompson Book Co., Washington, D. C., 1967

ALGOL (ALGOrithmic .hanguage)

A language developed jointly in the U.S.

and Europe. Suitable for expressing so-lutions to problems requiring numeric computations and some logical processes.

Second version, ALGOL 60 (which had a few revisions in 1962), is the current language. Has no officially defined in-put/output. Implemented on many compu-ters. Revised ALGOL 60 (with input/out-put specifications added) has been ap-proved for all practical purposes as an international standard. / REF: Naur, P.

(ed.), "Revised Report on the Algorith-mic Language ALGOL 60", Communications of the ACM, Vol. 6, No.1, Jan. 1963;

"Collected Algorithms from the

Communi-cations of the ACM", Association for Com-puting Machinery, Inc., New York. N. Y., 1966, ff; and ALGOL Bulletin / CONTACT:

Mr. W. L. van der Poel, Chrmn., IFIP TC 2.1 (ALGOL Comm.), Technical Univer-sity, Julianalaan 134, Delft. Holland ALTRAN

~ extension to FORTRAN on the 7090/94 to do formal rational-function manipu-lation. Uses ALPAK subroutines. / REF:

McIlroy, M. D. and Brown, W. S., "The ALTRAN Language for Symbolic Algebra on a Digital Computer", Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc., Murray Hill, N. J., May 1966 (unpublished)

AM!!!!

(Algebraic M.anipulation ~y ,Identi ty Translation)

- A string manipulation language based on a replacement rule involving a pointer.

Implemented on CDC 1604. / REF: Chris-tensen, C., "Examples of Symbol Manipu-lation in the AMBIT Programming Lan-guage", Proceedings of the ACM 20th Na-tional Conference (1965)

AMTRAN (Automatic Mathematical TRANslation)

~ on-line keyboard system aITOwing in-put and outin-put of equations in a semi-natural format, and output of graphical and numerical solutions on a scope or typewriter. Differing versions imple-mented on a few computers. / REF: Rein-felds, J. et al., "AMTRAN, A Remote-Terminal, ConVersational-Mode Computer System", Proceedings of the ACM 21st National Conference (I966)

APL/360 (A frogramming .hanguage on the 360) An on-line version of a subset of Iver-son's language on IBM System/360. / REF: Falkoff, A. D. and Iverson, K. E., APL/360 Terminal System, RC-1922, IBM Corp., T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, N. Y. 10598, Oct.

1967; and Iverson, K. E., A Programming Language, John Wiley

&

Sons, Inc., New York, N. Y., 1962

APT (Automatically frogrammed Iools) A language for numerically controlled machine tools. Implemented on many computers. A USASI standard is being developed. / REF: Brown, S. A.,

Drayton, C. E., and Mittman, B., "A De-scription of the APT Language", Commu-nications of the ACM, Vol. 6, No. 11, Nov. 1963 / CONTACT: APT Long IInnge Program, lIT Research Institute, 10 West 35th St., Chicago, Ill. 60(d6; or for information on the standard, Mr.

Alexander Grove, BEMA, 235 E. 42nd St., New York, N. Y. 10017

B\SIC (~eginner' s All Purpose §ymbolic ,In-struction Code)

A very simple language for use in sol-ving numerical problems; developed in an on-line system. Implemented on n few computers. / REF: Kemeny, J. G.

and Kurtz, T. E., BASIC Progrnmminq, John Wiley

&

Sons, Inc., New York, N. Y., 1967

BUGSYS

----A-language for use in preparing nnima-ted movies. Implemented on IBII 7094.

C-lO

/ REF: Ledley, R. S., Jacobsen, J., and Belson, M., "BUGSYS: A Progrnmming System for Picture Processing - Not for Debugging". Communications of the ACM, Vol. 9, No.2, Feb. 1966

--An improved version of COLINGO. Imple-.

mented on IB~ 1410. / REF: Steil, G.

P., Jr., "File Management on a Small Computer: The C-lO System", Procf'ec\-ings of the Spring Joint Computer Con-ference, Vol. 30 (1967)

CLP (Cornell List Processor)

- An extension of CORC to do list proces-sing. / REF: Conway, R.

w.,

I I

!!..!.,

"CLP - The Cornell List Processor", Communications of the ACM, Vol. 8, No.

4, April 1965

COBOL (fQmmon ~usiness Qriented .hanguage) An English-like language suitable for business data processing problems. De-veloped and maintained by a committee of representatives from manufacturers and users. Implemented on most compu-ters. Proposed USASI standard nppenrs close to final approval. / REF: '''COnOL, Edition 1965", U. S. Government Print-ing Office, WashPrint-ington, D. C., Nov.

Appendix B of the author's book, PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES: History and Funda-mentals, to be published by Prentice-Hall late in 1968. All these languages, plus others of historical interest only, are discussed in the book.

120 COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for June, 19l1H

COBOL Information Bulletin tt.9", ACM SIG-PLAN Notices, Vol. 2, No.4, April 1967 / CONTACT: Mr. Richard Kurtz (COBOL Language Subcommi ttee), Basic Software EDP Products, National Cash Register Co., Main ^&K Sts., Dayton, Ohio 45409;

or Mr. Alexander Grove (proposed stan-dard), BEMA, 235 E. 42nd St., New York, N. Y. 10017

COGENT (.£Qmpiler and GENeralized rranslator) A compiler wri ting language wi th strong elements of list processing. Implemen-ted on CDC 3600, 3BOO. / REF: Reynolds, J. C., COGENT Programming Manual, ANL-7022, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Ill., March 1965; and Reynolds, J. C., "An Introduction to the COGENT Programming System", Proceedings of the ACM 20th National Conference (1965) COGO (.£Qordinate §.eQrnetry)

A language useful for solving coordinate geometry problems in civil engineering.

Implemented on many computers. / REF:

Roos, D. and Miller, C. L., COGO-90:

An Engineering User's Manual, Research Report R64-l2, Dept. of Civil Engi neer-ing, M.I.T., Cambridge, Mass., April 1964; and "Engineer's Guide to ICES COGO I", R67-46, Dept. of Civil Engi-neering, M.LT., Cambridge, Mass., Aug.

1967 / CONTACT: Civil Engineering Sys-tems Laboratory, M.I.T., Cambridge, Mass. 02139

COLASL

----A-language developed at Los Alamos to do numeric computations on IBM 7030.

Requires a special typewriter which per-mits 2 dimensional input and output. / REF: Balke, K. G. and Carter, G. L.,

"The COLASL Automatic Coding Language", Symbolic Languages in Data Processing, Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, New York, N. Y., 1962 / CONTACT: Mr.

G. L. Carter, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratories, P. O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, N. Mex. B7544

COLINGO

----A--formalized English-like query system for command and control applications.

Implemented on IBM 1401. / REF: Spit-zer, J. F., Robertson, J. G., and Neuse, D. H., "The COLINGO System De-sign Philosophy", Information System Sciences: Proceedings of the Second Congress, Spartan Books, Washington, D. C., 1965

COMIT

--A string handling and pattern matching language. Available o~ the IBM 7090/94 through SHARE. / REF: An Introduction to COMIT Programming, and COMIT: Pro-grammer's Reference Manual, M.I.T.

Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1962; and "Pre-liminary COMIT II Manual" (mimeograph form only) / CONTACT: Prof. Victor Yngve, Univ. of Chicago, Graduate SChool Library, Chicago, Ill. 60637 CORAL (flass Qriented ging Associated

!:.anguage)

A very formal language with an unusual character set to handle certain types of list structures. Available only on the Lincoln Laboratory TX-2 computer.

/ I!EF: Roberts, L. B., "Graphical Com-munication and Control Languages", In-formation System Sciences: Proceed-fnllc; of the Second Congress, Spartan Uooks, Washington, D. C., 1965 CORC (COl!nell ~ompiler)

A simple language for use by students in doing mathematical problems. Imple-mented on Burroughs 220 and CDC 1604.

/ liEF: Conway, R. W. and Maxwell, W. L., "CORC - The Cornell Computing I.anguage", Communications of the ACM, Vol. 6, No.6, June 1963

CPS (f.onversational ,Erogramming ~stem)

An on-line subset of PL/I on IBM Sys-tem/360. / REF: "Conversational Pro-urammi ng System", Contributed Program I.ibrary tt.360D.03.4.016, IBM Corp. Pro-grnm Information Dept., Hawthorne, N. Y.

10532 / CONTACT: Mr. David Schroeder,

I1~\1 Corp., Boston Programming Center, COMPUTERS and AUTOMATION for June, 1968

Programming Languages

545 Tech. Sq., Cambridge, Mass. 02139 DAS (,!!igital Analog ~imulator)

A language to provide representations of the components in an analog compu-ter. Implemented on IBM 7090. / REF:

Gaskill, R. A., Harris, J. W., and McKnight, A. L., "DAS - A Digi tal Ana-log Simulator", Proceedings of the Spring Joint Computer Conference, Vol.

23 (J963) DATA-TEXT (Harvard)

A language for use by social scientists in doing their numerical computations and analyses. Implemented on IBM 7090/94. / REF: Data-Text Manual (Pre-liminary Manual), Dept. of Social Rela-tions, Harvard Univ., Cambridge, Mass., March 1967

DIALOG

----;\ij on-line system for doing numerical mathematical computations by using a light pen pOinting at a screen to cre-ate the program. Implemented on UNIVAC 1105. / REF: Cameron, S. H., Ewing, D., and Liveright, M., "DIALOG: A Conver-sational Programming System with a Graphical Orientation", Communications of the ACM, Vol. 10, No.6, June 1967 DIMATE (,!!epot Installed Maintenance

!uto-mated rest §.quipment)

Contains a language to assist in con-ducting automatic equipment tests.

Implemented on RCA 301. / REF: Scheff, B. H., "A Simple User-Oriented Compiler Source Language for Programming Auto-matic Test Equipment", Communications of the ACM, Vol. 9, No.4, April 1966 DOCUS C,!!isplay Qriented ~omputer Y,sage

~stem)

An on-line system based entirely upon pushbuttons with responses shown on the scope. Implemented on CDC l604B. / REF: Corbin, H. S. and Frank, W. L.,

"Display Oriented Computer Usage Sys-tem", Proceedings of the ACM 21st Na-tional Conference (1966)

DSL/90 (,!!igital ~imulation !:.anguage on 7090)

Ali

addi tion to FORTRAN which provides representation of blocks, switching functions, and function generators si-milar to those available with an analog computer. Implemented on IBM 7090/94.

/ REF: Syn, W. M. and Linebarger, R. N.,

"DSL/90 - A Digi tal Simuiat-ion Program for Continuous System Modeling", Pro-ceedings of the Spring Joint Computer Conference, Vol. 2B (1966)

DYNAMO

----oii"e of the first discrete simulation languages. Implemented on IBM 7090/94.

/ REF: Pugh, A. L., DYNAMO User's Man-ual (Second Edition), M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass., May 1963

DYSAC (,!!igi ta1l1 ^~imulatedAnalog ^~omputer) A language to provide representation of a number of analog computer compo-nents. Implemented on CDC 1604. / REF:

Hurley, J. R. and Skiles, J. J., "DY-SAC: A Digitally Simu13ted Analog Com-puter", Proceedings of the Spring Joint Computer Conference, Vol. 23 (1963) Extended ALGOL

A specific set of additions to ALGOL.

Implemented on Burroughs 5500. / REF:

Burroughs B5500 Information Processing Systems Extended ALGOL (Language Man-ual), Equipment and Systems Marketing Div., Burroughs Corp .• Detroit, Mich., 1966

FACT (fully Automatic ~ompiling rechnique) An English-like language suitable for business data processing. Available only on the Honeywell BOO. / REF: FACT Manual (Interim Edition), DSI-27E, 1161, Minneapolis-Honeywell Electronic Data Processing Div., Minneapolis, Minn., 1961

FLAP

--A program to do symbolic mathematics.

Implemented on IBM 7090. / REF: Mor-ris, A. H., Jr., The FLAP Language-A Programmer's Guide, K-B/67, U. S.

Naval Weapons Laboratory, Dahlgren,

Va., Jan. 1967

FORMAC (FORmula ~nipulation ~ompiler)

An extension of FORTRAN on the 7090/94 to do formal algebraic manipulation, e.g., formal differentiation, expres-sion expanexpres-sion, etc. See also PL/I-FORMAC. / REF: Sammet, J. E. and Bond, E., "Introduction to FORMAC", IEEE Tra nsac ti ons on Elect roni c Compu-ters, Vol. EC-13, No.4, Aug. 1964;

and FORMAC (Operating <lnd User's Pre-liminary Reference Manual), No.

7090 R2 IBM 0016, IBM Program Informa-tion Dept., Hawthorne, N. Y. 10532, Aug.

1965 / CONTACT: Mr. Clem Grabner, SEG/RTD (SESCD), Wright Patterson Air Force Ba se, Ohio

Formula ALGOL

An extension of ALGOL which provides basic oper<ltions for doing formal alge-braic manipul<ltion, list processing, and string manipulation. Implemented on G-2l. / REF: Perlis, A. J., Iturriaga, R., and Standish, T. A., A Definition of Formula ALGOL, Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, Pa., Aug. 1966 FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslator)

~ first language to be used widely for solving numerical problems. Has existed in many versions and been im-plemented on almost all computers. The first language to be a USASI standard.

There are actually two standards: Ba-sic FORTRAN, and FORTRAN, which corres-pond approximately to FORTRAN II and FORTRAN IV. / REF: "American Standard Basic FORTRAN", ASA X3.l0-1966, March 1966; "American Standard FORTRAN", ASA X3.9-l966, March 1966; and FORTRAN Information Bulletin / CONTACT:~

the standard) Mr. Alexander Grove, BEMA, 235 East 42nd St., New York, N. Y. 10017

473L Query

A formalized English-like query system for use in the Air Force 473L system.

Implemented on IBM 1410. / REF: Bar-low, A. E. and Cease, D. R., "Headquar-ters, United States Air Force Command and Control System Query Language", .!.!!.-formation System Sciences: Proceedings of the Second Congress, Spartan Books, Washington, D. C., 1965

FSL (f.ormal ~emantics !:.anguage)

A language for use in defining seman-tics needed for compiler writing. / REF: Feldman, J. A., "A Formal Seman-tics for Computer Languages and its Ap-plication in a Compiler-Compiler", Com-munications of the ACM, Vol. 9, No.1, Jan. 1966

GPL (~eneralized frogramming !:.anguage) A relatively new attempt at defining a general language, also containing self-extending capabilities; similar in spir-it to ALGOL. Implemented on CDC 3BOO.

/ REF: Garwick, J. V., Bell, J. R., and Krider, L. D., The GPL Language, TER-05, Control Data Corp., Palo Alto, Calif .

GPSS (§.eneral furpose ~stems ~imulator) A language for doing simulation prob-lems, based on a block diagram approac~

Implemented on a few computers. / REF:

General Purpose Simulation System/360 (Introductory User's Manual), H20-0304, IBM Corp., White Plains, N. Y. 10601;

and General Purpose Simulation System/

360 (User's Manual), H20-0326, IBM Corp., White Plains, N. Y. 10601 GRAF (GRaphic !ddi tions to f.ORTRAN)

A language which adds a gra~hic data-type to FORTRAN to facilitate the use of graphics on the computer. Implemen-ted on IBM System/360. / REF: Hurwitz, A., Citron, J. P., and Yeaton, J. B., "GRAF:

Graphic Additions to FORTRAN", Proceed-ings of the Spring Joint Computer Con-ference, Vol. 30 (1967)

GrapiiTC'Gilguage

A specific language for specifying graphic oper~tions. / REF: Schwinn, P. J., "A PrOblem Oriented Graphic Lan-guage", Proceedings of the ACM 22nd

121

National Conference (1967)

ICES <Integrated fivil £;ngineering §.ystem) A general system for engineering with some facilities for defining new lan-guages. Includes at least COGO and STRUDL, an internal language ICETRAN, and other languages such as ROADS, BRIDGE, TRANSIT, PROJECT, and SEPOL.

Implemented on IBM System/360. / REF:

Roos, D., "An Integra ted Computer Sys-tem for Engineering Problem Solving", Proceedings of the Fall Joint Computer Conference, Vol. 27, Part 2 (1965); and Roos, D. (ed.), "ICES System: General Description", R67-49, Dept. of Civil Engineering, M.I.T., Cambridge, Mass.

02139, Sept. 1967 / CONTACT: Civil En-gineering Systems Laboratory, M.I.T., Cambridge, Mass. 02139

IDS <Integrated Qata .§.tore)

An extension to COBOL to permit data to be represented in ring type lists. Im-plemented on GE computers. / REF: Bach-man, C. W. and Williams, S. B., "A Gen-eral Purpose Programming System for Ran-dom Access Memories", Proceedings of the Fall Joint Computer Conference, Vol. 26, Part 1 (964)

IPL-V (Information frocessing ~anguage J) A language to do list processing in which the instructions are conceptually at an assembly language level. Has been implemented on many computers. / REF:

Newell, A., tl.!!l. (eds.), Information Processing Language V Manual, 2nd ed., Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1965

JOSS (1.0HNNIAC Qpen .§.hop §.ystem)

A very simple on-line system for doing numerical computations. First version was on the JOHNNIAC (since disassembled).

Second version is on the PDP-6. Various versions under different names exist on other computers. / REF: Bryan, G. E.

and Smith, J. W., "JOSS Language", Mem-orandum RM-5377-PR, The RAND Corp., Santa Monica, Calif., Aug. 1967 JOVIAL (Jules Own Version of IAL)

----A-language-containing facilities for nu-merical computations and some data pro-cessing. Most widely used for command and control applications. Implemented on many computers in many versions. / REF: Perstein, M. H., The JOVIAL (J3) Grammar and Lexicon, TM-555-002-04, Sys-tem Development Corp., Santa Moni ca, Calif., 1966; Shaw, C. J., "A Specifica-tion of JOVIAL", CommunicaSpecifica-tions of the ACM, Vol. 6, No. 12, Dec. 1963; and J~

VIAL Information Bulletin.

L6 (Bell Telephone ~aboratories' ~ow-~evel

~i nked ~i s t ~anguage)

A list processing language which allows the user to define the type and sizes of his lists. Implemented on several com-puters. / REF: Knowlton, K., "A Program-mer's Description of L6, Bell Telephone Laboratories' Low-Level Linked List Lan-guage", Communications of the ACM, Vol.

9, No.8, Aug. 1966 LDT (~ogic Qesign Iranslator)

A language for writing logic equations for a computer from the information con-tained in the systems diagram and in-struction repertoire of the machine.

Implemented on Burroughs computers. / REF: Proctor, R. M., "A Logic Design Translator Experiment Dpmonstrating Re-lationships of Language to Systems and Logic Design", IEEE Transactions on Electronic Computers, Vol. EC-13, No.4, Aug. 1964

Lincoln Reckoner

An on-line system on the TX-2 to do mathematical computations with high-level matrix operations provided. / REF:

Stowe, A. N., et al., "The Lincoln Reck-oner: An Operation-Oriented, On-Line Facility with Distributed Control", Pro-ceedings of the Fall Joint Computer Con-ference, Vol. 29 (1966)

LISP 1.5 (LISt frocessing)

122

A very sophisticated and theoretically oriented language for doing list

Programming Languages

processing. Implemented on many compu-ters. / REF: Berkeley, E. C. and Bob-row, D. G. (eds.), The Programming Lan-guage LISP: Its Operation and Applica-tions, M.LT. Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1966; and Weissman, C., LISP 1.5 Primer, Dickenson Publishing Co., Inc., Belmont, Calif., 1967

LISP 2

~ ALGOL-like language which includes facilities and many concepts from LISP 1.5. Implemented on AN-FSQ-32V. / REF:

Abrahams, P., et a 1., "The LISP 2 Pro-gramming Languageand System", Proceed-ings of the Fall Joint Computer Confer-ence, Vol. 29 (1966) / CONTACT: Mr. J.

Barnett, Systems Development Corp., 2500 ColoradO Ave., Santa Monica, Ca 1 i f. 90404

LOLITA (~anguage for the Qn-~ine Investiga-tion and TransformaInvestiga-tion of AbstracInvestiga-tions)

An addition to one of the-Culler-Fried systems to do symbol manipulation. / REF: Blackwell, F. W., "An On-Line Sym-bol Manipulation System", Proceedings of the ACM 22nd Na ti ona 1 Conference (967)

MAD (Michigan Algorithm Qecoder)

A language for doing numerical computa-tions which has a very fast compiler.

Differing versions implemented on a few computers. / REF: The Michigan Algo-rithm Decoder (The MAD Manual), Univ.

of Michigan Computing Center, Ann Arbo~

Mich., 1966 / CONTACT: Prof. B. A.

Galler at above address MADCAP

----A-language developed at Los Alamos to do numeric computations and set theoret-ic operations on the MANIAC II. Re-quires a special typewriter which per-mits 2 dimensional input and output. / REF: Wells, M. B., "Recent Improvements

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