ok@goanna.cs.rmit.EDU.AU (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes:
> Chris.Bitmead@alcatel.com.au (Chris Bitmead uid(x22068)) writes:
>> You don't tell us though what typing has got to do with "systems vs
>> scripting". You don't say why a dynamically typed language can't be a
>> good systems language (lisp), or a statically typed language can't be
>> good at scripting (ML perhaps?)
> I note that Unisys (formerly the Burroughs part) have been using a
> statically typed 'scripting language' for decades. It's called WFL
> (Work Flow Language). Was it ICL whose language SCL (?something Command
> Language) was loosely modelled on Algol 68?
ICL used an Algol 68 dialect for their systems programming language, S3,
which is what the whole of their VME operating system is written in. SCL
has a vaguely similar syntax but a far simpler type system; it's still a
very nice scripting language with an efficient compiler and some useful
high-level primitives. (This is from distant memory, it's years since I
wrote any SCL, but it came as a breath of sanity after the macro-based model
of Unix shell scripts).
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