BCPL - Programming language

BCPL, aka Basic Combined Programming Language, is a programming language created in 1966 by Martin Richards.

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58Years Old

BCPL ("Basic Combined Programming Language"; or 'Before C Programming Language' (a common humorous backronym) ) is a procedural, imperative, and structured computer 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. Read more on Wikipedia...

Tags: programming language
Early development of BCPL happened in University of Cambridge
Explore BCPL snippets on Rosetta Code
BCPL on HOPL
BCPL appears in the TIOBE Index
See also: (8 related languages) CPL, B, C, Go, Pascal, Java, Fortran, CPL

Example from the web:

GET "LIBHDR"

LET START() = VALOF $(
        FOR I = 1 TO 5 DO
                WRITEF("%N! = %I4*N", I, FACT(I))
        RESULTIS 0
$)

AND FACT(N) = N = 0 -> 1, N * FACT(N - 1)

Example from hello-world:

GET "LIBHDR"

LET START() BE
$(
  WRITES("Hello World*N")
$)

Example from the Hello World Collection:

// Hello world in BCLP
GET "libhdr"

LET start() = VALOF
$( writes("Hello world*N")
   RESULTIS 0
$)

Example from Wikipedia:

GET "LIBHDR"

GLOBAL $(
	COUNT: 200
	ALL: 201
$)

LET TRY(LD, ROW, RD) BE
	TEST ROW = ALL THEN
		COUNT := COUNT + 1
	ELSE $(
		LET POSS = ALL & ~(LD | ROW | RD)
		UNTIL POSS = 0 DO $(
			LET P = POSS & -POSS
			POSS := POSS - P
			TRY(LD + P << 1, ROW + P, RD + P >> 1)
		$)
	$)

LET START() = VALOF $(
	ALL := 1
	FOR I = 1 TO 12 DO $(
		COUNT := 0
		TRY(0, 0, 0)
		WRITEF("%I2-QUEENS PROBLEM HAS %I5 SOLUTIONS*N", I, COUNT)
		ALL := 2 * ALL + 1
	$)
	RESULTIS 0
$)

Language features

Feature	Supported	Example	Token
Assignment	✓		:=
Print() Debugging	✓		WRITES
Comments	✓	// A comment
Line Comments	✓	// A comment	//
Semantic Indentation	X