PS-algol is an orthogonally persistent

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...

. PS-algol was an extension of the language

S-algol S-algol (St Andrews Algol) is a computer programming language derivative of ALGOL 60 developed at the University of St Andrews in 1979 by Ron Morrison and Tony Davie. The language is a modification of ALGOL to contain orthogonal data types that Mo ...

implemented by the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

and the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. S-algol was designed by

Ron Morrison Ron Morrison was the head of School of the computer science department of the University of St. Andrews where he worked on programming languages, inventing S-algol, and coinventing PS-algol and Napier88. He had graduated from St. Andrews wit ...

and extended by Pete Bailey, Fred Brown,

Paul Cockshott William Paul Cockshott (born 16 March 1952) is a Scottish computer scientist, Marxian economist and a reader at the University of Glasgow. Since 1993 he has authored multiple works in the tradition of scientific socialism, most notably ''Toward ...

, Ken Chisholm, and Al Dearle. These extensions were additional standard functions that provide a persistent heap that survives termination of PS-algol programs. PS-algol was the world's first fully implemented persistent programming language, and had many users both in academia and, notably, in

International Computers Limited International Computers Limited (ICL) was a British computer hardware, computer software and computer services company that operated from 1968 until 2002. It was formed through a merger of International Computers and Tabulators (ICT), English Ele ...

(ICL) research labs.

History

PS-algol was conceived by chance, when Ron Morrison was on sabbatical at the University of Edinburgh and met

Malcolm Atkinson Malcolm Phillip Atkinson (born 13 October 1943, Cornwall, UK) is a Professor of e-Science, in the University of Edinburgh School of Informatics. He is known for his work in the areas of object-oriented databases, database systems, software eng ...

. Atkinson had been experimenting with persistent programming languages and was struggling to find a coherent model for a persistent

Pascal Pascal, Pascal's or PASCAL may refer to: People and fictional characters * Pascal (given name), including a list of people with the name * Pascal (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name ** Blaise Pascal, Fren ...

variant. Morrison, whose interest in general-purpose programming had led to the development of S-algol, a general purpose teaching language, realised that S-algol's type system would more easily allow adding orthogonal persistence.

References

Algol programming language family {{Prog-lang-stub

History

See also

References