Technical reports

MCPL programming manual

Martin Richards

May 1992, 32 pages

DOI: 10.48456/tr-256

Abstract

MCPL is a systems programming language having much in common with BCPL but augmented by the pattern matching ideas of both ML and Prolog. Unlike ML, MCPL is typeless, runs using a contiguous runtime stack and has no built in garbage collector, but it does make extensive use of ML-like pattern matching. The low level aspects of the language resemble those of BCPL and C. For efficiency, MCPL uses its own function calling sequence, however a convenient mechanism for mixing MCPL and C programs is provided.

Notable features of MCPL are its pattern matching facilities and the simple way in which data structures are handled.

This document gives a complete definition of the language and includes, at the end, several example programs to demonstrate its capabilities.

Full text

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BibTeX record

@TechReport{UCAM-CL-TR-256,
  author =	 {Richards, Martin},
  title = 	 {{MCPL programming manual}},
  year = 	 1992,
  month = 	 may,
  url = 	 {https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/techreports/UCAM-CL-TR-256.pdf},
  institution =  {University of Cambridge, Computer Laboratory},
  doi = 	 {10.48456/tr-256},
  number = 	 {UCAM-CL-TR-256}
}