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→History: Deleted the mention of BCPL, which did not use null-terminated strings. See Talk:BCPL#NULL-terminated strings |
Updated IBM's ISA for subsequent vector string instructions |
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History of Programming Languages | edition = 2 | editor-first1= Thomas J. | editor-last1= Bergin, Jr. | editor-first2 = Richard G. | editor-last2 = Gibson, Jr. | publisher = ACM Press | ___location = New York | via = Addison-Wesley (Reading, Mass) | year = 1996 | isbn = 0-201-89502-1 }}</ref>
This had some influence on CPU [[instruction set]] design. Some CPUs in the 1970s and 1980s, such as the [[Zilog Z80]] and the [[Digital Equipment Corporation|DEC]] [[VAX]], had dedicated instructions for handling length-prefixed strings. However, as the null-terminated string gained traction, CPU designers began to take it into account, as seen for example in IBM's decision to add the "Logical String Assist" instructions to the [[IBM ES/9000 family|ES/9000]] 520 in 1992 and the vector string instructions to the [[IBM_z13_(microprocessor)|IBM z13]] in 2015.<ref name=pop>[http://publibfp.dhe.ibm.com/epubs/pdf/a227832c.pdf IBM z/Architecture Principles of Operation]</ref>
[[FreeBSD]] developer [[Poul-Henning Kamp]], writing in ''[[ACM Queue]]'', referred to the victory of null-terminated strings over a 2-byte (not one-byte) length as "the most expensive one-byte mistake" ever.<ref>{{citation |last=Kamp |first=Poul-Henning |date=25 July 2011 |title=The Most Expensive One-byte Mistake |journal=ACM Queue |volume=9 |number=7 |issn=1542-7730 |access-date=2 August 2011 |url=http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2010365 }}</ref>
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