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NPL Technical Report.
NPL Technical Report.
This manual provides a detailed and comprehensive description of a
new programming language, NPL. This new language is designed not
only for applications programming in the traditional commercial and
scientific fields, but also for programming in other applications areas.
At the same time, the language is so designed that different levels of
language facility can be selected for given clas ses of applications or for
given levels of programmer experience.
The NPL Technical Report is only intended to describe the language
and not to serve as a specification of the language for implementation by
a particular compiler.
December 1964
PREFACE
This manual constitutes a description of NPL. It is a technical report
of NPL, not a student text, nor a user's guide for a particular compiler
implementation of the language. Furthe r publications de scribing the language
are planned for a later date.
In general, this manual assumes a relatively high level of programITling
knowledge and experience on the part of the reader. Specifically, it aSSUITles
a thorough knowledge of modern prograITlITling concepts and techniques and
some knowledge of current high-level programming languages. Accordingly,
the manual is not intended for general distribution.
The "Introduction" chapter provides the reader with a review of the design
criteria of NPL and a discussion 'of the ITlore significant features of the
language; it also gives an indication of those parts of the ITlanual'that are of
interest to particular classes of users. The language description comprises
the succeeding twenty-seven chapters. Various kinds of reference inforITlation
have been organized into eight appendices, the last of which is concerned with
impleITlentation of NPL for the IBM SysteITl/360.
This description of NPL is based largely on reports issued by the SHARE
Advanced Language DevelopITlent COITlITlittee which included GUIDE representa-
tion. IBM wishes to express its deep appreciation to that cOITlmittee and to
acknowledge the efforts of its ITleITlbers.
This publication was prepared for production using an IBM computer tq,
update the text and to control the page and line format. Page
impressions for photo-offset printing were obtained from an IBM 1403
Printer using it special print chain.