Can anyone tell me anything about a language that was billed
as a successor to LISP in the late 70's called 'MUDDLE' or 'MDL'?
I know that the only place it really caught hold was in a
small group of students at MIT. (Some of them eventually left and
formed Infocom, but that's another story. :)
Are there compilers still available for this language?
Do you have any more information about it?
Thanks...
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In article <·····················@dsd.es.com> ······@dsd.es.com writes:
>
> Can anyone tell me anything about a language that was billed
>as a successor to LISP in the late 70's called 'MUDDLE' or 'MDL'?
> Are there compilers still available for this language?
>Do you have any more information about it?
There is (was?) a version of MUDDLE floating around for the DEC-20. I
remember Columbia U. had it before they switched to Vax systems. There
was no documentation available and nobody used it. Presumably, it came
from one of MIT's DEC-20's. Good luck trying to find it.
Eric Hochman
In article <·····················@panix.com> ·····@panix.com (Eric Hochman) writes:
>In article <·····················@dsd.es.com> ······@dsd.es.com writes:
>>
>> Can anyone tell me anything about a language that was billed
>>as a successor to LISP in the late 70's called 'MUDDLE' or 'MDL'?
>> Are there compilers still available for this language?
>>Do you have any more information about it?
>
>There is (was?) a version of MUDDLE floating around for the DEC-20. I
>remember Columbia U. had it before they switched to Vax systems. There
>was no documentation available and nobody used it. Presumably, it came
>from one of MIT's DEC-20's. Good luck trying to find it.
>
>Eric Hochman
I think the best short description of MDL is "Lisp 1.5 with data types
and arrays". It was designed in the early '70s and had lots of
features considered advanced at the time. In the mid '80s there was
an effort to use byte-coding to make the language very portable.
There have existed MDL compilers for DEC-10 and -20, Apollo Domain,
Sun-3, and Macintosh A/UX, but, in Eric's words, "good luck trying to
find them."
MIT Laboratory for Computer Science once published Technical Report
293, "The MDL Programming Language," but I don't know if it's still in
print. I may have an on-line copy somewhere.
-- Stu Galley, MDL fan and Infocom fovnder
On 15 Jul 91 17:27:46 GMT, ······@think.com (Stu Galley) said:
galley> I think the best short description of MDL is "Lisp 1.5 with data types
galley> and arrays".
That's Lisp 2, really. MDL I would describe as "Smalltalk meets MAClisp"
:-). But it is really fairly unique and distinctive.
galley> It was designed in the early '70s and had lots of features
galley> considered advanced at the time.
Well, it is a major example of neatly designed OO language. I wish more
OO language designers knew it, and got inspiration.
Another neat thing about MDL was its integration with Calico, a clever
librarian for reuse oriented class archival. ANother thing that more
people ought to know about.
galley> In the mid '80s there was an effort to use byte-coding to make
galley> the language very portable.
Expanding on this: the effort was successful and an MDL virtual machine
was defined; it was ported to several architectures:
galley> There have existed MDL compilers for DEC-10 and -20, Apollo
galley> Domain, Sun-3, and Macintosh A/UX, but, in Eric's words, "good
galley> luck trying to find them."
Amen. But there is an MDL mode for GNU Emacs, there used to be on mit-xx
a guest login that allowed you to try out MDL under twenex, and there
are quite a few techreps on it, the virtual machine, calico, and the
libraries thereof. Very interesting reading.
galley> MIT Laboratory for Computer Science once published Technical Report
galley> 293, "The MDL Programming Language," but I don't know if it's still in
galley> print. I may have an on-line copy somewhere.
The interesting sociological bit about MDL is that it is the product of
one of the two less known (but not for this less important -- quite the
opposite) LCS labs, the Programming Technology group (the other little
known groups is Computer Architectures; the two that do a lot of PR
instead are Computing Structures and Artificial Intelligence; warning,
this information is a bit dated).
galley> -- Stu Galley, MDL fan and Infocom fovnder
I am another MDL fan. Very, very well done.
--
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In article <·····················@Think.COM>, ······@think (Stu Galley) writes:
>MIT Laboratory for Computer Science once published Technical Report
>293, "The MDL Programming Language," but I don't know if it's still in
>print. I may have an on-line copy somewhere.
>
>-- Stu Galley, MDL fan and Infocom fovnder
Last time I checked, you could still buy the following from MIT-LCS:
_The MDL Programming Language_, by Galley & Pfister
_The MDL Programming Language Primer_, by Dornbrook & Blank
_The MDL Programming Environment_, by Lebling
That was a couple of years ago. Your mileage may vary.
--
Rich Alderson 'I wish life was not so short,' he thought. 'Languages take
Unix Systems such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.'
L&IR, Stanford --J. R. R. Tolkien,
········@alderson.stanford.edu _The Lost Road_
In article <·····················@Think.COM>, ······@think (Stu Galley) writes:
>MIT Laboratory for Computer Science once published Technical Report
>293, "The MDL Programming Language," but I don't know if it's still in
>print. I may have an on-line copy somewhere.
>
>-- Stu Galley, MDL fan and Infocom fovnder
I have copies of the manuals at home, if you are really desperate and
want to pay for duplication, I will do so.
Shane Hartman