IMP (programming language): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 09:34, 14 May 2020

Revision as of 19:27, 27 June 2020

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'''IMP''' is an early [[Systems programming|systems]] [[programming language]] that was developed by Edgar T. Irons in the late 1960s through early 1970s, at the [[National Security Agency]] (NSA). Unlike most other systems languages, IMP supports [[Syntax (programming languages)|syntax]]-[[extensible programming]].

Even though {{citation needed span|date=June 2020|reason=While presumably true, the actual quote deserves a specific cite amongst a plethora of similar statements|its designer refers to the language as "being based on [[ALGOL]]"}}, IMP excludes many ''defining'' features of that language, while supporting a very non-ALGOL-like one: syntax extensibility.

A [[compiler]] for IMP existed as early as 1965 and was used to program the [[CDC 6600]] time-sharing system, which was in use at the [[Institute for Defense Analyses]] since 1967. Although the compiler is slower than comparable ones for non-extensible languages, it has been used for practical production work.