NIL (programming language): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:30, 7 June 2008

Revision as of 02:45, 7 July 2008

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|logo =

|paradigm = [[multi-paradigm programming language|multi-paradigm]]: [[functional programming|functional]], [[procedural programming|procedural]]

|year = [[1970s]]

|designer = [[Jon L White]]

|developer = [[Jon L. White]], [[Guy L. Steele, Jr.]] and [[Richard P. Gabriel]]

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==History==

The [[Lisp (programming language)|Lisp]] language was invented in [[1958]] by [[John McCarthy (computer scientist)|John McCarthy]] while he was at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]]<ref>{{cite web|title=History of LISP|author=Paul McJones|url=http://community.computerhistory.org/scc/projects/LISP/|accessdate=2006-10-12}}</ref>. From 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. "The PDP-6 project started in early 1963, as a 24-bit machine. It grew to 36 bits for LISP, a design goal." [http://groups.google.com/group/alt.folklore.computers/browse_thread/thread/6e5602ce733d0ec/17597705ae289112] </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]]. Lisp, in particular [[Maclisp|MacLisp]] (so called because it originated at MIT's project MAC) was also used to implement the [[Macsyma]] [[computer algebra system]]. In the [[1970s]], as AI research spawned commercial offshoots, the performance of existing Lisp systems became a growing issue.

Partly because of [[garbage collection (computer science)|garbage collection]] (NIL would use stop-and-copy garbage collection of its single [[Heap (data structure)|heap]] for [[Dynamic memory allocation|memory allocation]]<ref name="GABRIEL"/>) and partly because of its representation of internal structures, Lisp became difficult to run on the memory-limited stock hardware of the day. This led to the creation of [[LISP machine]]s: dedicated hardware for running Lisp environments and programs. An alternative was to use the more powerful commodity hardware which was becoming available, in particular the [[Digital Equipment Corporation|DEC]] [[VAX]].

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* Rodney A. Brooks, Richard P. Gabriel, and Guy L. Steele Jr. S-1 Common Lisp Implementation. Proceedings of the 1982 ACM symposium on LISP and functional programming, Pittsburgh, 1982, pages 108 – 113. ACM DL

* Rodney A. Brooks, Richard P. Gabriel, and Guy L. Steele Jr. An optimizing compiler for a lexically scoped LISP. Proceedings of the 1982 Symposium on Compiler Construction, Boston, June 1982, pages 261-275. ACM DL

* Mark Smotherman. S-1 Supercomputer (1975-19881975–1988). Web site, last updated April 24, 2004. http://www.cs.clemson.edu/~mark/s1.html

{{Lisp}}