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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. agumonkey · · focus · HN ↗
      I didn't realize IPL lasted that long since indeed it's mentioned by mccarthy as a strong influence.. somehow I always assumed it meant pre-1959.

      btw, for people who were there at the time, even considering the bare metal assembly nature of IPL, were people already approaching solutions similarly to lispers in the 60s ? aka dynamic generic lists, tree traversals etc

      1. abrax3141 · · focus · HN ↗
        Yes. All of those were written in IPL well before Lisp. There were a dozen IPL-V implementations across almost every common computer of tat time. (Of course, there weren’t that many common computers! :-)
        1. agumonkey · · focus · HN ↗
          I need to find readings about the various versions and projects made on them.
          1. abrax3141 · · focus · HN ↗
            The 1964 manual has a list of implementations on pdf pg 3: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.org&#x2F;details&#x2F;bitsavers_randiplInfanguageVSecondEdition1964_15001417" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.org&#x2F;details&#x2F;bitsavers_randiplInfanguageVSeco...
            1. agumonkey · · focus · HN ↗
              Oh thanks. The first pages are already very interesting.
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