COWSEL

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COWSEL (COntrolled Working SpacE Language) is a programming language designed between 1964 and 1966 by Robin Popplestone. It was based on an reverse Polish notation (RPN) form of the language Lisp, combined with some ideas from Combined Programming Language (CPL).

COWSEL was initially implemented on a

function member
lambda x y
comment Is x a member of list y;
define      y atom then *0 end
            y hd x equal then *1 end
            y tl -> y repeat up

Reserved words (keywords) were also underlined in the original printouts. Popplestone performed syntax highlighting by using underscoring on a Friden Flexowriter.

See also

• POP-2 programming language
• POP-11 programming language
• Poplog programming environment

References

• Technical report: EPU-R-12, U Edinburgh (Apr 1966)

External links

• "The Early Development of POP" on The Encyclopedia of Computer Languages