11 Apr
2017
11 Apr
'17
4:47 p.m.
On Apr 11, 2017 11:29 AM, "Chuck Guzis via cctalk" <cctalk at
classiccmp.org>
wrote:
This has me wondering about how the 432 people
implemented FORTRAN.
Oh, there's a very simple answer to that. They didn't!
Early in the 8800/432 development (which started in 1975), Intel was
developing their own language for it, generally in the Algol family. It's
possible that they intended to support other languages, but Fortran
definitely would have been a poor fit.
When Ada came along, they decided that it was a reasonably good fit, and
with the DoD pushing Ada, that would be an easier sell to customers than a
proprietary language. Intel marketing basically claimed that the 432 was
designed for Ada, though that wasn't really the case.
The only two programming languages Intel supported on the 432 were:
1) Ada, using a cross-compiler written in Pascal and hosted on a VAX, to
run on "real" 432 systems such as the 432/670
2) Object Programming Language (OPL), a Smalltalk dialect based on Rosetta
Smalltalk, which only ran on the 432/100 demo board, a Multibus board
inserted in a slot of an Intel MDS decelopment system.
Late in the 432 timeline there was an unsupported port of XPL, but it did
not generate native code.
Apparently there was little concern for either Fortran or COBOL, the most
widely used programming languages at the time.