COWSEL (''COntrolled Working SpacE Language'') is a

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 ...

designed between 1964 and 1966 by

Robin Popplestone Robin John Popplestone (9 December 1938 in Bristol – 14 April 2004 in Glasgow) was a pioneer in the fields of machine intelligence and robotics. He is known for developing the COWSEL and POP-2, POP programming languages, and for his work on Fr ...

. It was based on an RPN form of

Lisp A lisp is a speech impairment in which a person misarticulates sibilants (, , , , , , , ). These misarticulations often result in unclear speech. Types * A frontal lisp occurs when the tongue is placed anterior to the target. Interdental lisping ...

combined with some ideas from CPL. COWSEL was initially implemented on a

Ferranti Pegasus Pegasus was an early British vacuum-tube (valve) computer built by Ferranti, Ltd that pioneered design features to make life easier for both engineers and programmers. Originally it was named the Ferranti Package Computer as its hardware design ...

computer at the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

and on a Stantec Zebra at the Bradford Institute of Technology; later,

Rod Burstall Rodney Martineau "Rod" Burstall FRSE (born 1934) is a British computer scientist and one of four founders of the Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science at the University of Edinburgh. Biography Burstall studied physics at the Universi ...

implemented it on an Elliot 4120 at 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 ...

. COWSEL was renamed POP-1 during the summer of 1966 and development continued under that name from then on.

Example code

function member lambda x y comment Is x a member of list y; define y atom then *0 end y hd x equal then *1 end y tl -> y repeat up Note that keywords were also underlined in the original printouts. Popplestone used a

Flexowriter The Friden Flexowriter produced by the Friden Calculating Machine Company, was a teleprinter, a heavy-duty electric typewriter capable of being driven not only by a human typing, but also automatically by several methods, including direct atta ...

with underscoring for

syntax highlighting Syntax highlighting is a feature of text editors that are used for programming, scripting, or markup languages, such as HTML. The feature displays text, especially source code, in different colours and fonts according to the category of terms ...

References

* Technical report: EPU-R-12, U Edinburgh (Apr 1966)

External links

"The Early Development of POP" on The Encyclopedia of Computer Languages
Functional languages History of computing in the United Kingdom Programming languages created in 1964 Programming languages {{compu-lang-stub

Example code

See also

References

External links