Lesson plan

ECL programming language

The ECL programming language and system were an extensible high-level programming language and development environment developed at Harvard University in the 1970s. The name 'ECL' stood for 'Extensible Computer Language' or 'EClectic Language'. Some publications used the name 'ECL' for the system as a whole and EL/1 (Extensible Language) for the language. ECL was an interactive system where programs were represented within the system; there was a compatible compiler and interpreter. It had an ALGOL-like syntax and an extensible data type system, with data types as first-class citizens. Data objects were values, not references, and the calling conventions gave a choice between call by value and call by reference for each argument. ECL was primarily used for research and teaching in programming language design, programming methodology (in particular programming by transformational refinement), and programming environments at Harvard, though it was said to be used at some government agencies as well. It was first implemented on the PDP-10, with a later (interpreted-only) implementation on the PDP-11 written in BLISS-11 and cross-compiled on the PDP-10.

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Article summary

The ECL programming language and system were an extensible high-level programming language and development environment developed at Harvard University in the 1970s. The name 'ECL' stood for 'Extensible Computer Language' or 'EClectic Language'. Some publications used the name 'ECL' for the system as a whole and EL/1 (Extensible Language) for the language. ECL was an interactive system where programs were represented within the system; there was a compatible compiler and interpreter. It had an ALGOL-like syntax and an extensible data type system, with data types as first-class citizens. Data objects were values, not references, and the calling conventions gave a choice between call by value and call by reference for each argument. ECL was primarily used for research and teaching in programming language design, programming methodology (in particular programming by transformational refinement), and programming environments at Harvard, though it was said to be used at some government agencies as well. It was first implemented on the PDP-10, with a later (interpreted-only) implementation on the PDP-11 written in BLISS-11 and cross-compiled on the PDP-10.

Key claims

  1. publication date: 1971 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95

Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. The record states that the publication date is "1971". What evidence would count against this claim?
  3. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  4. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

  1. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1071126855

Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.