Autocode is a class of simple high-level programming languages devised for a series of machines at the Universities of Manchester and Cambridge. An early version was developed for the Ferranti Mercury, which was developed in the 1950s in conjunction with Manchester. A high-level programming language is a programming language that is more user-friendly, to some extent platform-independent, and abstract from low-level computer processor operations such as memory accesses. ... The University of Manchester in Manchester, England is a university that was formed from the merger of the Victoria University of Manchester (commonly known as the University of Manchester before the merger) and UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) on 1 October 2004. ... The University of Cambridge is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... The Mercury was an early 1950s commercial computer built by Ferranti. ... // Events and trends The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the height of the baby-boom from returning...
The version for the EDSAC 2 was devised by D. F. Hartley of University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in 1961. It was ALGOL-like in structure and was optimised for use by scientists and engineers. Developments of it ran on the successor Titan (the prototype Atlas 2 computer), and a similar language was developed for the University of Manchester Atlas 1 machine (see Atlas Autocode). EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Computer) was an early British computer, which ran its first program† on May 6, 1949. ... The Computer Laboratory is Cambridge Universitys computer science department. ... The position of Algol Algol (β Per / Beta Persei) is a bright star in the constellation Perseus. ... The Titan computer was the name given to the Atlas 2 developed by Ferranti and the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory. ... The Atlas Computer of the University of Manchester became operational in 1962, having been a joint development between the University, Ferranti and Plessey. ... Atlas Autocode (AA) was a programming language developed at Manchester University for the Atlas Computer. ...
Atlas Autocode included a "%complex" data type which would support imaginary numbers (eg the square root of -1), a feature which was dropped when the language later morphed into the Edinburgh IMP programming language.
Atlas Autocode's syntax was influenced by the output device which the author had available, a Flexowriter.
Atlas Autocode's second-greatest claim to fame (after being the progenitor of Imp and EMAS) was that it was the original " Compiler Compiler " of which " Yacc " was a later derivative.
Micro Autocode is higher-level than assembler but lower-level than C. It allows you to use the full capabilities of a high level language that is well-matched to the device you are targetting.
Mercury Autocode was interpreted.) Micro Autocode follows the spirit of its parent, and in the main uses the same syntax.
In developing Micro Autocode we were careful to ensure that while the language should be based recognisably on Mercury Autocode, it must provide the sort of convieniences that modern programmers expect while ensuring a close relationship with the underlying hardware.