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Date:Mon Sep 29 10:46:04 1993 
Subject:Re: Threaded Interpretive Languages 
From:Robin Popplestone 
Volume-ID:930929.02 

Julian V. Noble writes in <CE2y30.M1D@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>


> Thank you for your spirited discussion of another little-known language.
> It is obvious that you like it. Possibly the name appeals to you?  :-)
> I note Chuck Moore did not name his creation "MOORTH" however...

Actually the language was originally called "Cowsel" that is "COntrolled
Working SpacE Language" - not a good name I admit. The eponymous garbage
collector was cribbed from LISP, but since interpretation of lists on the
British machines that even in 1964 were antique would have been inutterably
slow I employed a reverse polish internal form, initially interpreted.
Early in my existence in Edinburgh I did a covert implementation (we were all
supposed to use Algol 60), and managed to persuade people that being able to
change your program in seconds rather than hours was a Good Thing. The price
of acceptance by the boss (Donald Michie) was manifest when I returned from a
short holiday - the language was now called "POP", and I have had to live with
that ever since. Rod Burstall's daughters were particularly indignant - they
felt the successor should be called "Daddy-2".

Incidentally the latest RISC machines represent a return to aspects of the
earlier architectures in that access to main memory is now slow compared with
access to local memory....

Now I know that Brand Loyalty in computer languages is of a standard to make
a detergent manufacturer glow a fluorescent green, so it is something of a
waste of time to post on anything other than to the modest following of
comp.lang.pop, but actually people should know that the particular mix of
capabilities in the language they love, if it is unique, may have parallels
elsewhere which offer some advantages.

Robin Popplestone.