PL360, a Programming Language for the 360 Computers
Journal of the ACM (JACM)
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A generalized assembly language with possible applications in the areas of computer networks and software support packages is developed and discussed. The development of the language was guided by the principle that those operations in different assembly languages that are similar should have the same operation codes in this language.The major areas of difference between assembly languages are discussed and their resolution is presented. The areas of difference included different standard word lengths, a wide variety of special operations and different methods for branching. These problems were resolved, respectively, by length specification statements, creation of a superset of assembly languages and by using regular expressions as a means of branching.The use of regular expressions for branching has interesting effects on the structure of programs. The most notable effect is that it requires programs to be segmented into subprograms which consist entirely of sequentially processed instructions. This lends to easier documentation of assembly languages and to simpler programming of lookahead machines.