1 Jun
2001
1 Jun
'01
3:12 p.m.
It *did*
auto-format the code... but as these were the earliest
examples of what I think was incremental compiler technology,
you'd be typing the source text, and when you committed a syntax
error, the offending element was highlighted by a dashed-lined
circle, and further entry stopped until you corrected your
mistake.
This sounds like the Cornell Program Synthesizer developed
by long-time Cornell professor Tim Teitelbaum. It was used to
teach Pascal to tens of thousands of students at several large
universities in the early 80s, on Teraks and perhaps other
computers. I think he gets the credit for developing the
first practical language-sensitive editor, the progenitor
of most IDEs out there today.