budd@mist.cs.orst.edu (Tim Budd) (08/25/88)
Does anybody know how I can get hold of a reference manual for Backus' new language FL? I've tried writing to the man himself, but got no response.
ncmagel@ndsuvax.UUCP (ken magel) (08/26/88)
An implementation of Backus's FL language is included in the Berkeley 4.3 version of UNIX as distributed. There is a manual with that version including several sample programs.
jbone@ut-emx.UUCP (Jeff G. Bone) (08/29/88)
In article <1165@ndsuvax.UUCP>, ncmagel@ndsuvax.UUCP (ken magel) writes: > > An implementation of Backus's FL language... Look, somebody rag me real good if I'm wrong (what do I know, I'm just a CS undergrad), but having read Backus' Turing Award lecture in which he des- cribes the language in question, and having perused the literature concerning functional programming, I was under the impression that the language was called `FP'. I do know that the UNIX implementation of the language, at least as we have it here, IS called `FP'. Now, are we talking about the same language? Has Backus taken to calling it something else, or has he created *yet another* language? What's the scoop? By the way, this isn't just idle flaming. I sent e-mail about this to the author of the original posting, thinking it just a typo, but after having seen TWO postings about it, I'm curious. Functional programming is a strong interest of mine, and if `FL' isn't `FP', then I want to know about it. Comments? -jgb (jbone@emx.utexas.edu) ---------- "Everyone's head is a cheap movie show."
eugene@eos.UUCP (Eugene Miya) (08/30/88)
I guess I should clarify.
First, I was the one who sent Tim Budd the abstract of Backus's FL language.
I didn't copy the whole manual which was .25 inches thick. It looked
interesting. I first saw the manual at Stanford CS Dept. Library.
(See a pointer!)
I did get a manual from Backus, but I guess by the time Tim asked,
Backus had enough requests that he's stopped answering them.
This topic came up several months ago. Backus is implementing it
to run on his 3090. Backus gave a talk about FL about 1 year ago,
open to the public, my officemate went and was impressed. Apparently few
outsiders went, it was openly posted to ba.seminars. Please don't
ask me for a copy, perhaps, go borrow Stanford's, I think I should
probably send Tim a copy since I tantalized him (note: the cover like
all IBM covers says "limited distribution").
I think it is known that Backus was also not impressed with Scott Baden's FP
which was distributed with BSD.
Another gross generalization from
--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@aurora.arc.nasa.gov
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