PEP: An Interactive Programming System with an ALGOL-Like Programming Language

摘要

Construction of an interactive programming environment which provides a better structured language than BASIC, but which retains the attractive properties of BASIC systems, is intended. A simple computer network, consisting of a central PDP 11/23 host computer and several small LSI 11 satellite computers for the control of physics experiments, was used. The main tasks of the satellite computers are data acquisition, adjusting experiment parameters, and simple numerical analysis. The system is interpreter based. The language processed by the system allows declaration of variables, constants, and procedures; it has structured statements for conditional and repetitive execution of program parts. Experience shows that the system is much more powerful than available BASIC systems. The slowness of an interpreter based system is completely compensated for by the ease with which the system can be used and by the fast response to program changes.