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Web-based IBM 1620 emulator and IPL-V from 1963

53 points · 17 comments · abrax3141

  1. kragen · · focus · HN ↗
    Currently the title says "Web-based IBM 1620 emulator and IPL-V from 1963" until HN's title policy inevitably vandalizes it to remove the informative part. But, to give further context on IPL-V, IPL (I think actually IPL-IV) was key to some early AI research, but the main reason it's interesting in 02026 is that it's what inspired Lisp. It's a terrible programming language by today's standards, and the manual is a horrible slog, but you can see the seed of almost every programming language popular today in it.
    1. nxobject · · focus · HN ↗
      Reading through a CACM publication, I'm struck by how they call the whole system the "IPL Computer" -- they were specifying a bytecode VM. It looks like early IPLs dated to the 1950s, so they'll get a pass for the actual language...
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