History of the Scheme programming language: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:02, 15 October 2009

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The first complete Lisp compiler, written in Lisp, was implemented in 1962 by Tim Hart and Mike Levin at MIT.<ref name="LEVIN">{{cite web | title=AI Memo 39-The new compiler| author=Tim Hart and Mike Levin | url=ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/ai-publications/pdf/AIM-039.pdf | accessdate=2006-10-13}}</ref> This compiler introduced the Lisp model of incremental compilation, in which compiled and interpreted functions can intermix freely.

The two variants of Lisp most significant in the developementdevelopment of Scheme were both developed at MIT: LISP 1.5<ref>{{cite book | url = http://community.computerhistory.org/scc/projects/LISP/book/LISP%201.5%20Programmers%20Manual.pdf | title = LISP 1.5 Programmer's Manual | publisher = [[MIT Press]] | first1 = John | last1 = McCarthy | first2 = Paul W. | last2 = Abrahams | first3 = Daniel J. | last3 = Edwards | first4 = Timothy P. | last4 = Hart | first5 = Michael I. | last5 = Levin | isbn = 0 262 130 1 1 4 | year = 1985}}</ref> developed by McCarthy and others at MIT, and [[Maclisp|MACLISP]]<ref>{{cite web | url = http://zane.brouhaha.com/~healyzh/doc/lisp.doc.txt | title = Maclisp Reference Manual | date = March 3, 1979 | archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20071214064433/http://zane.brouhaha.com/~healyzh/doc/lisp.doc.txt | archivedate = 2007-12-14}}</ref> – developed for MIT's [[Project MAC]], a direct descendant of LISP 1.5. which ran on the PDP-10 and [[Multics]] systems.

Since its inception, Lisp was closely connected with the [[artificial intelligence]] research community, especially on [[PDP-10]]<ref>The 36-bit word size of the [[PDP-6]]/[[PDP-10]] was influenced by the usefulness of having two Lisp 18-bit pointers in a single word. {{cite newsgroup | quote = The PDP-6 project started in early 1963, as a 24-bit machine. It grew to 36 bits for LISP, a design goal. | url = http://groups.google.com/group/alt.folklore.computers/browse_thread/thread/6e5602ce733d0ec/17597705ae289112 | title = The History of TOPS or Life in the Fast ACs | newsgroup = alt.folklore.computers | id = [e-mail] | date = 18 October 1990 | author = Peter J. Hurley}}</ref> systems. Lisp was used as the implementation of the programming language [[Planner programming language|Micro Planner]] that was the foundation for the famous AI system [[SHRDLU]].

===ALGOL===

ALGOL 58. originally to be called IAL for "International Algorithmic Language", was developed jointly by a committee of European and American computer scientists in a meeting in 1958 at [[ETH Zurich]] (cf. [[ALGOL 58]]). ALGOL 60, a later revision developed at the ALGOL 60 meeting in Paris became the standard for the publication of algorithms and had a profound effect on future language development, despite the language's lack of commercial success and its limitations. [[C. A. R. Hoare]] has remarked: "Here is a language so far ahead of its time that it was not only an improvement on its predecessors but also on nearly all its successors."<ref>[http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~bchandra/courses/papers/Hoare_Hints.pdf "Hints on Programming Language Design"], C.A.R. Hoare, December 1973. Page 27. (This statement is sometimes erroneously attributed to [[Edsger W. Dijkstra]], also involved in implementing the first ALGOL 60 [[compiler]].)</ref>