From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_DATE autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,b19fa62fdce575f9 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1994-12-15 04:40:11 PST Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Path: nntp.gmd.de!newsserver.jvnc.net!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk!sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk!dcs.gla.ac.uk!unix.brighton.ac.uk!je From: je@unix.brighton.ac.uk (John English) Subject: Re: acronym PL/I (Formerly Re: Why don't large companies use Ada?) Message-ID: <1994Dec15.124011.21154@unix.brighton.ac.uk> Organization: University of Brighton, UK X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] References: <9412070053.AA05549@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu> <1994Dec10.120702.10352@sei.cmu.edu> Date: Thu, 15 Dec 1994 12:40:11 GMT Date: 1994-12-15T12:40:11+00:00 List-Id: Anthony Gargaro (abg@sei.cmu.edu) wrote: : In article <9412070053.AA05549@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu>, Paige Vinall writes: : |> The official name is PL/I (as specified by the ANSI standards). It : |> stands for "Programming Language One". The "I" is a roman numeral. : |> Using an arabic one is incorrect. Before PL/I, it was briefly called : |> NPL for "New Programming Language" but the acronym conflicted with Net : |> Propulsion Laboratory. "PL/1" is incorrect but used so heavily that I : |> don't bother correcting people. : Another issue with the acronym NPL was that it conflicted with the National : Physical Laboratory (NPL, Teddington, UK). This was more significant, if I : recall correctly, because the first PL/I compiler was developed at Hursley : Park near Winchester (England). I also seem to remember that IBM toyed with MPPL (Multi Purpose Programming Language) for a while but deemed it too ugly, and that when they finally gave up trying to think of a nice name and plumped for PL/1 they copyrighted PL/2 to PL/100 just to be on the safe side (but not PL/M or PL/360 :-) -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- John English | Thoughts for the day: Dept. of Computing | - People who live in windowed environments University of Brighton | shouldn't cast pointers E-mail: je@brighton.ac.uk | - In C++ only your friends can access your Fax: 0273 642405 | private parts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------