BCPL: The Language and its Compiler

by Martin Richards

A series of public lectures given at the Institute of Education, University of London provides the nucleus around which this collection, originally published in 1967, is gathered. This collection provides comprehensive coverage of a complex theme which will be of interest to those involved in the fields of philosophy and education alike. Topics covered logical and psychological aspects of learning, the concept of play, rule and routines, teaching and training, philosophical models of teaching.

Genres: Computer Science

184 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1981

Reviews

[Simon Collis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1981, I bought this when I saw it mentioned in an article on compilers, and someone mentioned this as being a model of what a book about a computer language should be.

It's interesting to see the way in which this book works, and it's probably a good model for low-level programming. A fascinating insight into a little-used language these days, and still quite readable even if you can't get your head round BCPL. Modern programmers new to antique languages will find it strangely fascinating: no strings, no classes, no memory management. It's about as low level as you can get, and yet there's concepts in there (write once, run anywhere) that are bang up to date in the latest languages.

A fascinating read for anyone seriously interesting in the history of computing.