The ECL programming language and system was an extensible high-level programming language and development environment developed at Harvard University in the 1970's. The name 'ECL' stood for 'Extensible Computer Language' or 'EClectic Language'. Some publications used the name 'ECL' for the entire system and 'EL/1' (Extensible Language) for the language itself. A programming language is an artificial language that can be used to control the behavior of a machine, particularly a computer. ... An integrated development environment (IDE), also known as integrated design environment and integrated debugging environment, is a type of computer software that assists computer programmers in developing software. ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) , is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ...

ECL was an interactive system where programs were represented within the system; there was a compatible compiler and interpreter. It had an ALGOL-like syntax and an extensible data type system, with data types as first-class citizens. Data objects were values, not references, and the calling conventions gave a choice between call by value and call by reference for each argument. This article is about the computing term. ... Interpreter can mean one of the following: In communication, an interpreter is a person whose role is to facilitate dialogue between two parties that do not use the same language. ... ALGOL (short for ALGOrithmic Language) is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in the mid 1950s which became the de facto standard way to report algorithms in print for almost the next 30 years. ... A data type is a constraint placed upon the interpretation of data in a type system in computer programming. ... Parameters are a way of allowing the same sequence of commands to operate on different data without re-specifying the instructions. ... Parameters are a way of allowing the same sequence of commands to operate on different data without re-specifying the instructions. ...

ECL was primarily used for research and teaching in programming language design, programming methodology, and programming environments at Harvard, though it was said to be used at some government agencies as well. Its only implementation was on the PDP-10. Computer code (HTML with JavaScript) in a tool that uses syntax highlighting (colors) to help the developer see the function of each piece of code. ... An alternate rewrite has been has been proposed. ... An integrated development environment (IDE), also known as integrated design environment and integrated debugging environment, is a type of computer software that assists computer programmers in developing software. ... The PDP-10 was a computer manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from the late 1960s on; the name stands for Programmed Data Processor model 10. It was the machine that made time-sharing common; it looms large in hacker folklore because of its adoption in the 1970s by many...

References

PISEL = Proceedings of the international symposium on Extensible languages, Grenoble, France, 1971, published in ACM SIGPLAN Notices 6:12, December 1971.

• Benjamin M. Brosgol, "An implementation of ECL data types", PISEL 87-95.
• Thomas E. Cheatham, Jr., Glenn H. Holloway, Judy A. Townley, "Program refinement by transformation", Proceedings of the 5th international conference on Software engineering, 1981, p. 430-437. ISBN 0-89791-146-6
• Glenn H. Holloway, "Interpreter/compiler integration in ECL", PISEL 129-134.
• Charles J. Prenner, "The control structure facilities of ECL", PISEL 104-112.
• Ben Wegbreit, "An overview of the ECL programming system", PISEL.
• Ben Wegbreit, "Studies in extensible programming languages." Technical Report ESD-TR-70-297. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 1970.
• Ben Wegbreit et al., "ECL Programmer's Manual", Center for Research in Computing Technology, Harvard University, September 1972.