Programmable Command Language
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| + | '''Programmable Command Language''' (PCL) was created at Carnegie Mellon University to enable the development of new commands to be invoked from the command line of DEC [[TOPS-20]] mainframes, which were in heavy use in universities from the late 1970s through the 1980s. It is not connected with the printer command language [[PCL]]. | ||
| − | + | TOPS-20 had a very advanced command line interface with some user-friendly features such as context-sensitive help and suggested command completion while a command was being input from a terminal. PCL allowed developers to interface with this system to provide similar help and completion functions for the commands they were developing. | |
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| − | TOPS-20 had a very advanced command line interface with some user-friendly features such as context-sensitive help and suggested command completion while a command was being input from a terminal. PCL allowed developers to interface with this system to provide similar help and completion functions for the commands | + | |
A set of structured programming constructs, described in the reference guide as "[[ALGOL]]-like", was provided, along with commands geared toward specific TOPS-20 features including access to its filesystem. | A set of structured programming constructs, described in the reference guide as "[[ALGOL]]-like", was provided, along with commands geared toward specific TOPS-20 features including access to its filesystem. | ||
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== References == | == References == | ||
* [http://www.math.utah.edu/~bowman/pcl.txt PCL reference guide] | * [http://www.math.utah.edu/~bowman/pcl.txt PCL reference guide] | ||
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| + | [[Category:TOPS-20]] | ||
| + | [[Category:CMU]] | ||
Latest revision as of 23:26, 11 March 2016
Programmable Command Language (PCL) was created at Carnegie Mellon University to enable the development of new commands to be invoked from the command line of DEC TOPS-20 mainframes, which were in heavy use in universities from the late 1970s through the 1980s. It is not connected with the printer command language PCL.
TOPS-20 had a very advanced command line interface with some user-friendly features such as context-sensitive help and suggested command completion while a command was being input from a terminal. PCL allowed developers to interface with this system to provide similar help and completion functions for the commands they were developing.
A set of structured programming constructs, described in the reference guide as "ALGOL-like", was provided, along with commands geared toward specific TOPS-20 features including access to its filesystem.
PCL programs were created as plain-text files, then compiled into TOPS-20 executables.
