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Available in 31 languages" > <label id="p-lang-btn-label" for="p-lang-btn-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--action-progressive mw-portlet-lang-heading-31" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-language-progressive mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-language-progressive"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">31 languages</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ar mw-list-item"><a href="https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%84%D8%BA%D8%A9_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D8%B1%D9%85%D8%AC%D8%A9_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A9_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AE%D8%AA%D9%84%D8%B7%D8%A9" title="لغة البرمجة الأساسية المختلطة – Arabic" lang="ar" hreflang="ar" data-title="لغة البرمجة الأساسية المختلطة" data-language-autonym="العربية" data-language-local-name="Arabic" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>العربية</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-an mw-list-item"><a href="https://an.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Aragonese" lang="an" hreflang="an" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="Aragonés" data-language-local-name="Aragonese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Aragonés</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-bn mw-list-item"><a href="https://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%8F%E0%A6%B2" title="বিসিপিএল – Bangla" lang="bn" hreflang="bn" data-title="বিসিপিএল" data-language-autonym="বাংলা" data-language-local-name="Bangla" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>বাংলা</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ca mw-list-item"><a href="https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Catalan" lang="ca" hreflang="ca" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="Català" data-language-local-name="Catalan" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Català</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-cs mw-list-item"><a href="https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Czech" lang="cs" hreflang="cs" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="Čeština" data-language-local-name="Czech" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Čeština</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-da mw-list-item"><a href="https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Danish" lang="da" hreflang="da" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="Dansk" data-language-local-name="Danish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Dansk</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-de mw-list-item"><a href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Combined_Programming_Language" title="Basic Combined Programming Language – German" lang="de" hreflang="de" data-title="Basic Combined Programming Language" data-language-autonym="Deutsch" data-language-local-name="German" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Deutsch</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-es mw-list-item"><a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL_(lenguaje_de_programaci%C3%B3n)" title="BCPL (lenguaje de programación) – Spanish" lang="es" hreflang="es" data-title="BCPL (lenguaje de programación)" data-language-autonym="Español" data-language-local-name="Spanish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Español</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fa mw-list-item"><a href="https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A8%DB%8C%E2%80%8C%D8%B3%DB%8C%E2%80%8C%D9%BE%DB%8C%E2%80%8C%D8%A7%D9%84" title="بی‌سی‌پی‌ال – Persian" lang="fa" hreflang="fa" data-title="بی‌سی‌پی‌ال" data-language-autonym="فارسی" data-language-local-name="Persian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>فارسی</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fr mw-list-item"><a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – French" lang="fr" hreflang="fr" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="Français" data-language-local-name="French" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Français</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-gl mw-list-item"><a href="https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Galician" lang="gl" hreflang="gl" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="Galego" data-language-local-name="Galician" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Galego</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ko mw-list-item"><a href="https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Korean" lang="ko" hreflang="ko" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="한국어" data-language-local-name="Korean" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>한국어</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-hy mw-list-item"><a href="https://hy.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Armenian" lang="hy" hreflang="hy" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="Հայերեն" data-language-local-name="Armenian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Հայերեն</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-io mw-list-item"><a href="https://io.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Ido" lang="io" hreflang="io" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="Ido" data-language-local-name="Ido" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Ido</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-id mw-list-item"><a href="https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Indonesian" lang="id" hreflang="id" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="Bahasa Indonesia" data-language-local-name="Indonesian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Bahasa Indonesia</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-it mw-list-item"><a href="https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Italian" lang="it" hreflang="it" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="Italiano" data-language-local-name="Italian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Italiano</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-he mw-list-item"><a href="https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Hebrew" lang="he" hreflang="he" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="עברית" data-language-local-name="Hebrew" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>עברית</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ml mw-list-item"><a href="https://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B4%AC%E0%B4%BF%E0%B4%B8%E0%B4%BF%E0%B4%AA%E0%B4%BF%E0%B4%8E%E0%B5%BD" title="ബിസിപിഎൽ – Malayalam" lang="ml" hreflang="ml" data-title="ബിസിപിഎൽ" data-language-autonym="മലയാളം" data-language-local-name="Malayalam" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>മലയാളം</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-nl mw-list-item"><a href="https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Dutch" lang="nl" hreflang="nl" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="Nederlands" data-language-local-name="Dutch" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Nederlands</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ja mw-list-item"><a href="https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Japanese" lang="ja" hreflang="ja" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="日本語" data-language-local-name="Japanese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>日本語</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-no mw-list-item"><a href="https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Norwegian Bokmål" lang="nb" hreflang="nb" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="Norsk bokmål" data-language-local-name="Norwegian Bokmål" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Norsk bokmål</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pl mw-list-item"><a href="https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Polish" lang="pl" hreflang="pl" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="Polski" data-language-local-name="Polish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Polski</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pt mw-list-item"><a href="https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Portuguese" lang="pt" hreflang="pt" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="Português" data-language-local-name="Portuguese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Português</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ru mw-list-item"><a href="https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Russian" lang="ru" hreflang="ru" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="Русский" data-language-local-name="Russian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Русский</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fi mw-list-item"><a href="https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Finnish" lang="fi" hreflang="fi" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="Suomi" data-language-local-name="Finnish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Suomi</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sv mw-list-item"><a href="https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Swedish" lang="sv" hreflang="sv" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="Svenska" data-language-local-name="Swedish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Svenska</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-tr mw-list-item"><a href="https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Turkish" lang="tr" hreflang="tr" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="Türkçe" data-language-local-name="Turkish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Türkçe</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-uk mw-list-item"><a href="https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Ukrainian" lang="uk" hreflang="uk" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="Українська" data-language-local-name="Ukrainian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Українська</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-vi mw-list-item"><a href="https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Vietnamese" lang="vi" hreflang="vi" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="Tiếng Việt" data-language-local-name="Vietnamese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Tiếng Việt</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-zh-yue mw-list-item"><a href="https://zh-yue.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Cantonese" lang="yue" hreflang="yue" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="粵語" data-language-local-name="Cantonese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>粵語</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-zh mw-list-item"><a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL" title="BCPL – Chinese" lang="zh" hreflang="zh" data-title="BCPL" data-language-autonym="中文" data-language-local-name="Chinese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>中文</span></a></li> </ul> <div class="after-portlet after-portlet-lang"><span class="wb-langlinks-edit wb-langlinks-link"><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:EntityPage/Q810009#sitelinks-wikipedia" title="Edit interlanguage links" class="wbc-editpage">Edit links</a></span></div> </div> </div> </div> </header> <div class="vector-page-toolbar"> <div class="vector-page-toolbar-container"> <div id="left-navigation"> <nav 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<div class="vector-body-before-content"> <div class="mw-indicators"> </div> <div id="siteSub" class="noprint">From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</div> </div> <div id="contentSub"><div id="mw-content-subtitle"></div></div> <div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content"><div class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr"><div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none">Multi-paradigm computer programming language</div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236090951">.mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .hatnote{display:none!important}}</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Not to be confused with <a href="/wiki/BASIC" title="BASIC">BASIC</a>.</div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236090951"><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">This article is about the programming language. For the library system, see <a href="/wiki/Baltimore_County_Public_Library" title="Baltimore County Public Library">Baltimore County Public Library</a>.</div> <p class="mw-empty-elt"> </p> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1257001546">.mw-parser-output .infobox-subbox{padding:0;border:none;margin:-3px;width:auto;min-width:100%;font-size:100%;clear:none;float:none;background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .infobox-3cols-child{margin:auto}.mw-parser-output .infobox .navbar{font-size:100%}@media screen{html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data:not(.notheme)>div:not(.notheme)[style]{background:#1f1f23!important;color:#f8f9fa}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data:not(.notheme) div:not(.notheme){background:#1f1f23!important;color:#f8f9fa}}@media(min-width:640px){body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table{display:table!important}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table>caption{display:table-caption!important}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table>tbody{display:table-row-group}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table tr{display:table-row!important}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table th,body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table td{padding-left:inherit;padding-right:inherit}}</style><table class="infobox vevent"><caption class="infobox-title summary">BCPL</caption><tbody><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><a href="/wiki/Programming_paradigm" title="Programming paradigm">Paradigm</a></th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="/wiki/Procedural_programming" title="Procedural programming">procedural</a>, <a href="/wiki/Imperative_programming" title="Imperative programming">imperative</a>, <a href="/wiki/Structured_programming" title="Structured programming">structured</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><a href="/wiki/Software_design" title="Software design">Designed by</a></th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="/wiki/Martin_Richards_(computer_scientist)" title="Martin Richards (computer scientist)">Martin Richards</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">First appeared</th><td class="infobox-data">1967<span class="noprint">; 57 years ago</span><span style="display:none"> (<span class="bday dtstart published updated">1967</span>)</span><sup id="cite_ref-IEEE_CPA_MRichards_1-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-IEEE_CPA_MRichards-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><a href="/wiki/Type_system" title="Type system">Typing discipline</a></th><td class="infobox-data">typeless (everything is a <a href="/wiki/Word_(computer_architecture)" title="Word (computer architecture)">word</a>)</td></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header" style="background-color: #eee;">Influenced by</th></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-full-data"><a href="/wiki/CPL_(programming_language)" title="CPL (programming language)">CPL</a></td></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header" style="background-color: #eee;">Influenced</th></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-full-data"><a href="/wiki/B_(programming_language)" title="B (programming language)">B</a>, <a href="/wiki/C_(programming_language)" title="C (programming language)">C</a>, <a href="/wiki/Go_(programming_language)" title="Go (programming language)">Go</a><sup id="cite_ref-hgophers_2-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-hgophers-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></td></tr></tbody></table> <p><b>BCPL</b> ("<b>Basic Combined Programming Language</b>") is a <a href="/wiki/Procedural_programming" title="Procedural programming">procedural</a>, <a href="/wiki/Imperative_programming" title="Imperative programming">imperative</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Structured_programming" title="Structured programming">structured</a> <a href="/wiki/Programming_language" title="Programming language">programming language</a>. Originally intended for writing <a href="/wiki/Compiler" title="Compiler">compilers</a> for other languages, BCPL is no longer in common use. However, its influence is still felt because a stripped down and syntactically changed version of BCPL, called <a href="/wiki/B_(programming_language)" title="B (programming language)">B</a>, was the language on which the <a href="/wiki/C_(programming_language)" title="C (programming language)">C programming language</a> was based. BCPL introduced several features of many modern programming languages, including using <a href="/wiki/Brace_programming_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Brace programming language">curly braces</a> to delimit code blocks.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> BCPL was first implemented by <a href="/wiki/Martin_Richards_(computer_scientist)" title="Martin Richards (computer scientist)">Martin Richards</a> of the <a href="/wiki/University_of_Cambridge" title="University of Cambridge">University of Cambridge</a> in 1967.<sup id="cite_ref-IEEE_CPA_MRichards_1-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-IEEE_CPA_MRichards-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Design">Design</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=BCPL&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Design"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1251242444">.mw-parser-output .ambox{border:1px solid #a2a9b1;border-left:10px solid #36c;background-color:#fbfbfb;box-sizing:border-box}.mw-parser-output .ambox+link+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+link+style+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+link+link+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+.mw-empty-elt+link+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+.mw-empty-elt+link+style+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+.mw-empty-elt+link+link+.ambox{margin-top:-1px}html body.mediawiki .mw-parser-output .ambox.mbox-small-left{margin:4px 1em 4px 0;overflow:hidden;width:238px;border-collapse:collapse;font-size:88%;line-height:1.25em}.mw-parser-output .ambox-speedy{border-left:10px solid #b32424;background-color:#fee7e6}.mw-parser-output .ambox-delete{border-left:10px solid #b32424}.mw-parser-output .ambox-content{border-left:10px solid #f28500}.mw-parser-output .ambox-style{border-left:10px solid #fc3}.mw-parser-output .ambox-move{border-left:10px solid #9932cc}.mw-parser-output .ambox-protection{border-left:10px solid #a2a9b1}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-text{border:none;padding:0.25em 0.5em;width:100%}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-image{border:none;padding:2px 0 2px 0.5em;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-imageright{border:none;padding:2px 0.5em 2px 0;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-empty-cell{border:none;padding:0;width:1px}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-image-div{width:52px}@media(min-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .ambox{margin:0 10%}}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .ambox{display:none!important}}</style><table class="box-More_citations_needed_section plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-content ambox-Refimprove" role="presentation"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image"><div class="mbox-image-div"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Question_book-new.svg" class="mw-file-description"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/50px-Question_book-new.svg.png" decoding="async" width="50" height="39" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/75px-Question_book-new.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/100px-Question_book-new.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="512" data-file-height="399" /></a></span></div></td><td class="mbox-text"><div class="mbox-text-span">This section <b>needs additional citations for <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability" title="Wikipedia:Verifiability">verification</a></b>.<span class="hide-when-compact"> Please help <a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/BCPL" title="Special:EditPage/BCPL">improve this article</a> by <a href="/wiki/Help:Referencing_for_beginners" title="Help:Referencing for beginners">adding citations to reliable sources</a> in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.</span> <span class="date-container"><i>(<span class="date">January 2017</span>)</i></span><span class="hide-when-compact"><i> (<small><a href="/wiki/Help:Maintenance_template_removal" title="Help:Maintenance template removal">Learn how and when to remove this message</a></small>)</i></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table> <p>BCPL was designed so that small and simple compilers could be written for it; reputedly some compilers could be run in 16 <a href="/wiki/Kilobyte" title="Kilobyte">kilobytes</a>. Furthermore, the original compiler, itself written in BCPL, was easily portable. BCPL was thus a popular choice for <a href="/wiki/Bootstrapping_(compilers)" title="Bootstrapping (compilers)">bootstrapping</a> a system.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" style="white-space:nowrap;">[<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed"><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources. (January 2017)">citation needed</span></a></i>]</sup> A major reason for the compiler's portability lay in its structure. It was split into two parts: the front end parsed the source and generated O-code, an <a href="/wiki/Intermediate_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Intermediate language">intermediate language</a>. The back end took the O-code and translated it into the machine code for the target machine. Only <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1154941027">.mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);clip-path:polygon(0px 0px,0px 0px,0px 0px);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}</style><span class="frac"><span class="num">1</span>⁄<span class="den">5</span></span> of the compiler's code needed to be rewritten to support a new machine, a task that usually took between 2 and 5 <a href="/wiki/Man-month" class="mw-redirect" title="Man-month">person-months</a>. This approach became common practice later (e.g. <a href="/wiki/Pascal_(programming_language)" title="Pascal (programming language)">Pascal</a>, <a href="/wiki/Java_(programming_language)" title="Java (programming language)">Java</a>). </p><p>The language is unusual in having only one <a href="/wiki/Data_type" title="Data type">data type</a>: a <a href="/wiki/Word_(computer_architecture)" title="Word (computer architecture)">word</a>, a fixed number of bits, usually chosen to align with the architecture's machine word and of adequate capacity to represent any valid storage address. For many machines of the time, this data type was a 16-bit word. This choice later proved to be a significant problem when BCPL was used on machines in which the smallest addressable item was not a word but a <a href="/wiki/Byte" title="Byte">byte</a> or on machines with larger word sizes such as 32-bit or 64-bit.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" style="white-space:nowrap;">[<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed"><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources. (January 2017)">citation needed</span></a></i>]</sup> </p><p>The interpretation of any value was determined by the operators used to process the values. (For example, <code>+</code> added two values together, treating them as <a href="/wiki/Integer" title="Integer">integers</a>; <code>!</code> indirected through a value, effectively treating it as a pointer.) In order for this to work, the implementation provided no <a href="/wiki/Type_checking" class="mw-redirect" title="Type checking">type checking</a>. </p><p>The mismatch between BCPL's word orientation and <a href="/wiki/Byte_addressing" title="Byte addressing">byte-oriented</a> hardware was addressed in several ways. One was by providing standard library routines for packing and unpacking words into byte strings. Later, two language features were added: the bit-field selection operator and the infix byte indirection operator (denoted by <code>%</code>).<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>BCPL handles bindings spanning separate <a href="/wiki/Compilation_unit" class="mw-redirect" title="Compilation unit">compilation units</a> in a unique way. There are no user-declarable global variables; instead, there is a global vector, similar to "blank common" in <a href="/wiki/Fortran" title="Fortran">Fortran</a>. All data shared between different compilation units comprises scalars and pointers to vectors stored in a pre-arranged place in the global vector. Thus, the header files (files included during compilation using the "GET" directive) become the primary means of synchronizing global data between compilation units, containing "GLOBAL" directives that present lists of symbolic names, each paired with a number that associates the name with the corresponding numerically addressed word in the global vector. As well as variables, the global vector contains bindings for external procedures. This makes dynamic loading of compilation units very simple to achieve. Instead of relying on the link loader of the underlying implementation, effectively, BCPL gives the programmer control of the linking process.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" style="white-space:nowrap;">[<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed"><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources. (January 2017)">citation needed</span></a></i>]</sup> </p><p>The global vector also made it very simple to replace or augment standard library routines. A program could save the pointer from the global vector to the original routine and replace it with a pointer to an alternative version. The alternative might call the original as part of its processing. This could be used as a quick <i>ad hoc</i> debugging aid.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" style="white-space:nowrap;">[<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed"><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources. (January 2017)">citation needed</span></a></i>]</sup> </p><p>BCPL was the first <a href="/wiki/Brace_programming_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Brace programming language">brace programming language</a> and the braces survived the syntactical changes and have become a common means of denoting program source code statements. In practice, on limited keyboards of the day, source programs often used the sequences <code>$(</code> and <code>$)</code> or <code>[</code> and <code>]</code> in place of the symbols <code>{</code> and <code>}</code>. The single-line <code>//</code> <a href="/wiki/Comment_(computer_programming)" title="Comment (computer programming)">comments</a> of BCPL, which were not adopted by <a href="/wiki/C_(programming_language)" title="C (programming language)">C</a>, reappeared in <a href="/wiki/C%2B%2B" title="C++">C++</a> and later in <a href="/wiki/C99" title="C99">C99</a>. </p><p>The book <i>BCPL: The language and its compiler</i> describes the philosophy of BCPL as follows: </p> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1244412712">.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 32px}.mw-parser-output .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;margin-top:0}@media(min-width:500px){.mw-parser-output .templatequotecite{padding-left:1.6em}}</style><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>The philosophy of BCPL is not one of the tyrant who thinks he knows best and lays down the law on what is and what is not allowed; rather, BCPL acts more as a servant offering his services to the best of his ability without complaint, even when confronted with apparent nonsense. The programmer is always assumed to know what he is doing and is not hemmed in by petty restrictions.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></p></blockquote> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="History">History</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=BCPL&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: History"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>BCPL was first implemented by <a href="/wiki/Martin_Richards_(computer_scientist)" title="Martin Richards (computer scientist)">Martin Richards</a> of the <a href="/wiki/University_of_Cambridge" title="University of Cambridge">University of Cambridge</a> in 1967.<sup id="cite_ref-IEEE_CPA_MRichards_1-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-IEEE_CPA_MRichards-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> BCPL was a response to difficulties with its predecessor, Cambridge Programming Language, later renamed <a href="/wiki/Combined_Programming_Language" class="mw-redirect" title="Combined Programming Language">Combined Programming Language</a> (CPL), which was designed during the early 1960s. Richards created BCPL by "removing those features of the full language which make compilation difficult". The first compiler implementation, for the <a href="/wiki/IBM_7094" class="mw-redirect" title="IBM 7094">IBM 7094</a> under <a href="/wiki/Compatible_Time-Sharing_System" title="Compatible Time-Sharing System">Compatible Time-Sharing System</a>, was written while Richards was visiting <a href="/wiki/Project_MAC" class="mw-redirect" title="Project MAC">Project MAC</a> at the <a href="/wiki/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology" title="Massachusetts Institute of Technology">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> in the spring of 1967. The language was first described in a paper presented to the 1969 Spring <a href="/wiki/Joint_Computer_Conference" title="Joint Computer Conference">Joint Computer Conference</a>.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" style="white-space:nowrap;">[<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed"><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources. (January 2017)">citation needed</span></a></i>]</sup> </p><p>BCPL has been rumored to have originally stood for "Bootstrap Cambridge Programming Language", but CPL was never created since development stopped at BCPL, and the acronym was later reinterpreted for the BCPL book.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template" style="margin-left:0.1em; white-space:nowrap;">[<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Please_clarify" title="Wikipedia:Please clarify"><span title="The text near this tag may need clarification or removal of jargon. (January 2017)">clarification needed</span></a></i>]</sup><sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" style="white-space:nowrap;">[<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed"><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources. (January 2017)">citation needed</span></a></i>]</sup> </p><p>BCPL is the language in which the original <a href="/wiki/Hello_world_program" class="mw-redirect" title="Hello world program">"Hello, World!" program</a> was written.<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The first <a href="/wiki/Multi-user_dungeon" title="Multi-user dungeon">MUD</a> was also written in BCPL (<i><a href="/wiki/MUD1" title="MUD1">MUD1</a></i>). </p><p>Several <a href="/wiki/Operating_system" title="Operating system">operating systems</a> were written partially or wholly in BCPL (for example, <a href="/wiki/TRIPOS" title="TRIPOS">TRIPOS</a> and the earliest versions of <a href="/wiki/AmigaDOS" title="AmigaDOS">AmigaDOS</a>). BCPL was also the initial language used in the <a href="/wiki/Xerox_PARC" class="mw-redirect" title="Xerox PARC">Xerox PARC</a> <a href="/wiki/Alto_(computer)" class="mw-redirect" title="Alto (computer)">Alto</a> project. Among other projects, the <a href="/wiki/Bravo_(software)" class="mw-redirect" title="Bravo (software)">Bravo</a> <a href="/wiki/Word_processor" title="Word processor">document preparation system</a> was written in BCPL. </p><p>An early compiler, bootstrapped in 1969, by starting with a paper tape of the O-code of Richards's <a href="/wiki/Titan_(1963_computer)" title="Titan (1963 computer)">Atlas 2</a> compiler, targeted the <a href="/wiki/ICT_1900_series" title="ICT 1900 series">ICT 1900 series</a>. The two machines had different word-lengths (48 vs 24 bits), different character encodings, and different packed string representations—and the successful bootstrapping increased confidence in the practicality of the method. </p><p>By late 1970, implementations existed for the <a href="/wiki/GE-600_series" title="GE-600 series">Honeywell 635 and Honeywell 645</a>, <a href="/wiki/IBM_360" class="mw-redirect" title="IBM 360">IBM 360</a>, <a href="/wiki/PDP-10" title="PDP-10">PDP-10</a>, <a href="/wiki/TX-2" title="TX-2">TX-2</a>, <a href="/wiki/CDC_6400" class="mw-redirect" title="CDC 6400">CDC 6400</a>, <a href="/wiki/UNIVAC_1108" class="mw-redirect" title="UNIVAC 1108">UNIVAC 1108</a>, <a href="/wiki/PDP-9" title="PDP-9">PDP-9</a>, <a href="/wiki/KDF_9" class="mw-redirect" title="KDF 9">KDF 9</a> and Atlas 2. In 1974 a dialect of BCPL was implemented at <a href="/wiki/BBN_Technologies" class="mw-redirect" title="BBN Technologies">BBN</a> without using the intermediate O-code. The initial implementation was a <a href="/wiki/Cross-compiler" class="mw-redirect" title="Cross-compiler">cross-compiler</a> hosted on BBN's <a href="/wiki/TENEX_(operating_system)" title="TENEX (operating system)">TENEX</a> <a href="/wiki/PDP-10" title="PDP-10">PDP-10s</a>, and directly targeted the <a href="/wiki/PDP-11" title="PDP-11">PDP-11s</a> used in BBN's implementation of the second generation <a href="/wiki/Interface_Message_Processor" title="Interface Message Processor">IMPs</a> used in the <a href="/wiki/ARPANET" title="ARPANET">ARPANET</a>. </p><p>There was also a version produced for the <a href="/wiki/BBC_Micro" title="BBC Micro">BBC Micro</a> in the mid-1980s, by Richards Computer Products, a company started by John Richards, the brother of Martin Richards.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The <a href="/wiki/BBC_Domesday_Project" title="BBC Domesday Project">BBC Domesday Project</a> made use of the language. Versions of BCPL for the <a href="/wiki/Amstrad_CPC" title="Amstrad CPC">Amstrad CPC</a> and <a href="/wiki/Amstrad_PCW" title="Amstrad PCW">Amstrad PCW</a> computers were also released in 1986 by UK software house Arnor Ltd. MacBCPL was released for the Apple Macintosh in 1985 by Topexpress Ltd, of Kensington, England. </p><p>Both the design and philosophy of BCPL strongly influenced <a href="/wiki/B_(programming_language)" title="B (programming language)">B</a>, which in turn influenced <a href="/wiki/C_(programming_language)" title="C (programming language)">C</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-C_Prog_Lang_KR_8-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-C_Prog_Lang_KR-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Programmers at the time debated whether an eventual successor to C would be called "D", the next letter in the alphabet, or "P", the next letter in the parent language name. The language most accepted as being C's successor is <a href="/wiki/C%2B%2B" title="C++">C++</a> (with <code>++</code> being C's <a href="/wiki/Increment_operator" class="mw-redirect" title="Increment operator">increment operator</a>),<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> although meanwhile, a <a href="/wiki/D_(programming_language)" title="D (programming language)">D</a> programming language also exists. </p><p>In 1979, implementations of BCPL existed for at least 25 architectures; the language gradually fell out of favour as C became popular on non-Unix systems. </p><p>Martin Richards maintains a modern version of BCPL on his website, last updated in 2023.<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> This can be set up to run on various systems including Linux, FreeBSD, and Mac OS X. The latest distribution includes graphics and sound libraries, and there is a comprehensive manual. He continues to program in it, including for his research on musical automated <a href="/wiki/Score_following" title="Score following">score following</a>. </p><p>A common informal <a href="/wiki/Media_type" title="Media type">MIME type</a> for BCPL is <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r886049734">.mw-parser-output .monospaced{font-family:monospace,monospace}</style><span class="monospaced">text/x-bcpl</span>. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Examples">Examples</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=BCPL&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Examples"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Hello_world">Hello world</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=BCPL&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Hello world"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Richards and Whitby-Strevens<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> provide an example of the <a href="/wiki/%22Hello,_World!%22_program" title=""Hello, World!" program">"Hello, World!" program</a> for BCPL using a standard system header, 'LIBHDR': </p> <pre>GET "LIBHDR" LET START() BE WRITES("Hello, World") </pre> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Further_examples">Further examples</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=BCPL&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Further examples"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1251242444"><table class="box-Original_research plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-content ambox-Original_research" role="presentation"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image"><div class="mbox-image-div"><span typeof="mw:File"><span><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b4/Ambox_important.svg/40px-Ambox_important.svg.png" decoding="async" width="40" height="40" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b4/Ambox_important.svg/60px-Ambox_important.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b4/Ambox_important.svg/80px-Ambox_important.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="40" data-file-height="40" /></span></span></div></td><td class="mbox-text"><div class="mbox-text-span">This section <b>possibly contains <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research" title="Wikipedia:No original research">original research</a></b>.<span class="hide-when-compact"> Please <a class="external text" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=BCPL&action=edit">improve it</a> by <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability" title="Wikipedia:Verifiability">verifying</a> the claims made and adding <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources#Inline_citations" title="Wikipedia:Citing sources">inline citations</a>. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed.</span> <span class="date-container"><i>(<span class="date">August 2019</span>)</i></span><span class="hide-when-compact"><i> (<small><a href="/wiki/Help:Maintenance_template_removal" title="Help:Maintenance template removal">Learn how and when to remove this message</a></small>)</i></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table> <p>If these programs are run using Richards' current version of Cintsys (December 2018), LIBHDR, START and WRITEF must be changed to lower case to avoid errors. </p><p>Print factorials: </p> <pre>GET "LIBHDR" LET START() = VALOF $( FOR I = 1 TO 5 DO WRITEF("%N! = %I4*N", I, FACT(I)) RESULTIS 0 $) AND FACT(N) = N = 0 -> 1, N * FACT(N - 1) </pre> <p>Count solutions to the <a href="/wiki/Eight_queens_puzzle" title="Eight queens puzzle">N queens problem</a>: </p> <pre>GET "LIBHDR" GLOBAL $( COUNT: 200 ALL: 201 $) LET TRY(LD, ROW, RD) BE TEST ROW = ALL THEN COUNT := COUNT + 1 ELSE $( LET POSS = ALL & ~(LD | ROW | RD) UNTIL POSS = 0 DO $( LET P = POSS & -POSS POSS := POSS - P TRY(LD + P << 1, ROW + P, RD + P >> 1) $) $) LET START() = VALOF $( ALL := 1 FOR I = 1 TO 12 DO $( COUNT := 0 TRY(0, 0, 0) WRITEF("%I2-QUEENS PROBLEM HAS %I5 SOLUTIONS*N", I, COUNT) ALL := 2 * ALL + 1 $) RESULTIS 0 $) </pre> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=BCPL&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: References"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist"> <div class="mw-references-wrap mw-references-columns"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-IEEE_CPA_MRichards-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-IEEE_CPA_MRichards_1-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-IEEE_CPA_MRichards_1-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-IEEE_CPA_MRichards_1-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}</style><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.today/20171124083723/https://www.computer.org/web/awards/pioneer-martin-richards">"Martin Richards (2003 Computer Pioneer Award)"</a>. IEEE Computer Society. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.computer.org/web/awards/pioneer-martin-richards">the original</a> on 24 November 2017<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">24 November</span> 2017</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Martin+Richards+%282003+Computer+Pioneer+Award%29&rft.pub=IEEE+Computer+Society&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.computer.org%2Fweb%2Fawards%2Fpioneer-martin-richards&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ABCPL" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-hgophers-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-hgophers_2-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFPike2014" class="citation web cs1">Pike, Rob (24 April 2014). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://talks.golang.org/2014/hellogophers.slide#21">"Hello Gophers"</a><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">11 March</span> 2016</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Hello+Gophers&rft.date=2014-04-24&rft.aulast=Pike&rft.aufirst=Rob&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Ftalks.golang.org%2F2014%2Fhellogophers.slide%2321&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ABCPL" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mr10/bcplman.pdf">https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mr10/bcplman.pdf</a> The BCPL Cintsys and Cintpos User Guide, 2.1.4 Section brackets</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.lysator.liu.se/c/clive-on-history.html">"Clive Feather on CPL and BCPL"</a>. <i>www.lysator.liu.se</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">1 March</span> 2024</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=www.lysator.liu.se&rft.atitle=Clive+Feather+on+CPL+and+BCPL&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lysator.liu.se%2Fc%2Fclive-on-history.html&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ABCPL" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFRichardsWhitby-Strevens1980" class="citation book cs1">Richards, Martin; Whitby-Strevens, Colin (1980). <i>BCPL: The Language and its Compiler</i>. Cambridge University Press. p. 5. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0521785433" title="Special:BookSources/978-0521785433"><bdi>978-0521785433</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=BCPL%3A+The+Language+and+its+Compiler&rft.pages=5&rft.pub=Cambridge+University+Press&rft.date=1980&rft.isbn=978-0521785433&rft.aulast=Richards&rft.aufirst=Martin&rft.au=Whitby-Strevens%2C+Colin&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ABCPL" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-6">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/B/BCPL.html">BCPL</a>, <i><a href="/wiki/Jargon_File" title="Jargon File">Jargon File</a></i></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-7">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.thebaron.info/archives/technology/reuters-technical-development-glossary">"Reuters technical development: Glossary - THE BARON"</a>. <i>www.thebaron.info</i>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=www.thebaron.info&rft.atitle=Reuters+technical+development%3A+Glossary+-+THE+BARON&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thebaron.info%2Farchives%2Ftechnology%2Freuters-technical-development-glossary&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ABCPL" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-C_Prog_Lang_KR-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-C_Prog_Lang_KR_8-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFKernighan,_Brian_W.Dennis_M._Ritchie1978" class="citation book cs1">Kernighan, Brian W.; Dennis M. Ritchie (1978). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/cprogramminglang00bria"><i>The C Programming Language</i></a>. Bell Telephone Laboratories. p. 2. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-13-110163-3" title="Special:BookSources/0-13-110163-3"><bdi>0-13-110163-3</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+C+Programming+Language&rft.pages=2&rft.pub=Bell+Telephone+Laboratories&rft.date=1978&rft.isbn=0-13-110163-3&rft.au=Kernighan%2C+Brian+W.&rft.au=Dennis+M.+Ritchie&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Fcprogramminglang00bria&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ABCPL" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-9">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.cplusplus.com/info/history/">History of C++</a> Retrieved 12 December 2017</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-10">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFMartin_Richards" class="citation web cs1">Martin Richards. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mr10/BCPL/README">"BCPL/README (BCPL Cintcode distribution)"</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=BCPL%2FREADME+%28BCPL+Cintcode+distribution%29&rft.au=Martin+Richards&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cl.cam.ac.uk%2F~mr10%2FBCPL%2FREADME&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ABCPL" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-11">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFRichardsWhitby-Strevens1980" class="citation book cs1">Richards, Martin; Whitby-Strevens, Colin (1980). <i>BCPL: The Language and its Compiler</i>. Cambridge University Press. p. 8. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0521785433" title="Special:BookSources/978-0521785433"><bdi>978-0521785433</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=BCPL%3A+The+Language+and+its+Compiler&rft.pages=8&rft.pub=Cambridge+University+Press&rft.date=1980&rft.isbn=978-0521785433&rft.aulast=Richards&rft.aufirst=Martin&rft.au=Whitby-Strevens%2C+Colin&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ABCPL" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> </ol></div></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Further_reading">Further reading</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=BCPL&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: Further reading"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li>Martin Richards, <i><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/bcpl.html">The BCPL Reference Manual</a></i> (Memorandum M-352, <a href="/wiki/Project_MAC" class="mw-redirect" title="Project MAC">Project MAC</a>, Cambridge, MA, USA, July, 1967)</li> <li>Martin Richards, <i>BCPL - a tool for compiler writing and systems programming</i> (<b>Proceedings of the Spring Joint Computer Conference</b>, Vol 34, pp 557–566, 1969)</li> <li>Martin Richards, Arthur Evans, Robert F. Mabee, <i><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160305034639/http://publications.csail.mit.edu/lcs/specpub.php?id=709">The BCPL Reference Manual</a></i> (MAC TR-141, <a href="/wiki/Project_MAC" class="mw-redirect" title="Project MAC">Project MAC</a>, Cambridge, MA, USA, 1974)</li> <li>Martin Richards, Colin Whitby-Strevens, <i>BCPL, the language and its compiler</i> (Cambridge University Press, 1980) <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-521-28681-6" title="Special:BookSources/0-521-28681-6">0-521-28681-6</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=BCPL&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: External links"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/mr/BCPL.html">Martin Richards' BCPL distribution</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/bcpl.html">Martin Richards' BCPL Reference Manual, 1967</a> by <a href="/wiki/Dennis_M._Ritchie" class="mw-redirect" title="Dennis M. Ritchie">Dennis M. Ritchie</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/B/BCPL.html">BCPL entry</a> in the <a href="/wiki/Jargon_File" title="Jargon File">Jargon File</a></li> <li>Nordier & Associates' <a href="/wiki/X86" title="X86">x86</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200715142010/http://www.nordier.com/software/bcpl.html">port</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://cpcwiki.eu/imgs/3/3a/ArnorBCPL.pdf">ArnorBCPL manual</a> (1986, <a href="/wiki/Amstrad_PCW" title="Amstrad PCW">Amstrad PCW</a>/<a href="/wiki/Amstrad_CPC" title="Amstrad CPC">CPC</a>)</li> <li>How BCPL evolved from CPL, Martin Richards <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mr10/cpl2bcpl.pdf">[1]</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/chist.html">Ritchie's <i>The Development of the C Language</i></a> has commentary about BCPL's influence on C</li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mr10/bcplman.pdf">The BCPL Cintsys and Cintpos User Guide</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/alto/bcpl/BCPL_Reference_Manual_Sep75.pdf">BCPL Reference Manual, 1975 Xerox Palo Alto Research Center</a></li></ul> <div class="navbox-styles"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1129693374">.mw-parser-output .hlist dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul{margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt,.mw-parser-output .hlist li{margin:0;display:inline}.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol 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