RUSOFFMH@ctrvx1.Vanderbilt.Edu (T B A L) (07/14/89)
Has anyone out there heard of a language called POP or POP-11? If so, could you point me to some reference material on it? I think it may have originated on PDP's (the 11 implies this) and there is a version for the Mac called Alpha-POP. It appears to be like a hybrid of FORTH and Lisp. Thanx....... --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Martin H. Rusoff Vanderbilt University Usual disclaimers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
aarons%cogs.sussex.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk (Aaron Sloman) (07/17/89)
This message was forwarded to me by a reader of unix-wizards. >Date: Thu, 13 Jul 89 14:31 CST >From: T B A L <RUSOFFMH@edu.vanderbilt.ctrvx1> >Subject: POP-11? >To: UNIX-WIZARDS@mil.brl.sem >Message-Id: <8907131532.aa25920@SEM.BRL.MIL> > >Has anyone out there heard of a language called POP or POP-11? If >so, could you point me to some reference material on it? I think it >may have originated on PDP's (the 11 implies this) and there is a version >for the Mac called Alpha-POP. It appears to be like a hybrid of >FORTH and Lisp. > >Thanx....... >--------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Martin H. Rusoff >Vanderbilt University Yes the original version was called POP-11 because there had been a POP-10 for DEC-10 computers. Before that it was POP-2, the language used for AI research at Edinburgh University through most of the 1970s, till they diversified and used Prolog and Lisp as well as POP. Pop-11 is now a powerful language similar in functionality Common Lisp but with a syntax more like Pascal (which people not used to Lisp often find an easier way into AI programming), and a number of special features of its own, e.g. lightweight processes, a pattern matcher. Yes, like Forth it uses a stack for arguments and results, separate from the procedure calling stack. Since 1981 when POP-11 was ported to the VAX it has become incorporated in Poplog, which now includes Pop-11, Prolog, Common Lisp, and standard ML, all incrementally compiled to the Poplog virtual machine, and from there to machine code. (Other languages can be added using the The Alphapop version reviewed in Byte, May 1988, is a subset that runs only on the Mac at present. Poplog Pop-11 requires a bigger machine and runs on the following systems VAX (VMS/Unix(4.2, 4.3)/Ultrix), Sun2, Sun3, Sun4(SPARC), Sun386i (Road-runner), HP 9000 300 series workstations with HPUX Apollo with Bsd Unix Sequent Symmetry with Dynix Orion 1/05 (with Clipper). This version is not supported at present A port to DECstation 3100 with Ultrix should be completed late 1989. It is also being ported to Mac II under A/UX. The VMS version of Poplog accepts Unix file names to facilitate portability of programs. An X windows interface should be available early next year. (The existing poplog window manager runs only on Sun and Vaxstation.) Some literature on Pop-11. R. Barrett, A. Ramsay and A. Sloman POP-11: A Practical Language for AI, Ellis Horwood and John Wiley, 1985, reprinted 1986. (Does not describe the current version, with full lexical scoping, "destroy" actions, etc.) French translation published by Manuels Informatiques Masson, 1987. M. Burton, and N. Shadbolt, POP-11 Programming for Artificial Intelligence, Addison Wesley, 1987. Gazdar, G., & C. Mellish Natural Language Processing in POP-11, Addison Wesley, 1989. (Also available in Prolog, and in Common Lisp. The programming examples are available on disk from The School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences, Sussex University.) Jonathan Laventhol, Programming in POP-11 Blackwell, 1987 (Describes the Alphapop subset of Pop-11) Allan Ramsay and Rosalind Barrett, Artificial Intelligence in practice: examples in POP-11 Ellis Horwood and John Wiley, 1987. Mike Sharples, (editor) et al Computers and Thought, An introductory textbook on on AI, based largely on POP-11, 1989, MIT Press. James Anderson at Reading University has edited a collection of essays on Pop (which is now 21 years old), to be published by Ellis Horwood. Alphapop is available from Cognitive Applications Ltd 4 Sillwood Terrace Brighton BN1 2LR England Poplog is sold commercially but is available to academics at a large discount (approx 85%). US and Canada Contact addresses for POPLOG (also Alphapop): Prof Robin Popplestone Dept. of Computer and Information Science Lederle Graduate Research Center University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01003, USA Email pop@cs.umass.edu or Prof Robin Popplestone Computable Functions Inc., 35 South Orchard Drive, Amherst, MA 01002, USA Phone(413) 253-7637 Commercial sales and educational sales outside UK, Canada and USA Integral Solutions Ltd Unit 3, Campbell Court (maybe called Campbell House later) Bramley, Near Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG26 5EG Phone +44 256 882028 Fax +44 256 882182 There are special arrangements for UK academics. Contact Ms Alison Mudd School of Cognitive Sciences University of Sussex Brighton, BN1 9QN phone: 0273-606755 email: alim@uk.ac.sussex.cogs Aaron Sloman School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences, Univ of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QN, England INTERNET: aarons%uk.ac.sussex.cogs@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk aarons%uk.ac.sussex.cogs%nsfnet-relay.ac.uk@relay.cs.net JANET aarons@cogs.sussex.ac.uk BITNET: aarons%uk.ac.sussex.cogs@uk.ac or aarons%uk.ac.sussex.cogs%ukacrl.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu UUCP: ...mcvax!ukc!cogs!aarons or aarons@cogs.uucp Phone: University +(44)-(0)273-678294 (Direct line. Diverts to secretary)