PL/1 (Programming Language 1)

IN the early 1960s two categories of programmer could be distinguished:

1. The scientific programmer who needed floating point arithmetic, arrays, procedures and fast computation.
2. The commercial programmer who required only decimal arithmetic but also fast and asynchronous I/O, string handling facilities and efficient search and sort routines.

The first group tended to use FORTRAN, while the second used mostly COBOL. However, by the mid 1960s more divers categories of programmer were emerging whose requirements did not fit neatly into the scientific or commercial mode of programming. IBM, who were at the forefront of computer development at the time, saw an opening for a new style of programming language. The result was PL/1.

The language was intended to be a general purpose language suitable for all applications and combined many ideas taken from FORTRAN , ALGOL and COBOL. PL/1 also attempted to combine run-time efficiency with flexibility, however, the result was a very complex language. Consequently the language never lived up to its expectations.

Created and maintained by Frans Coenen. Last updated 03 July 2001