A truly general purpose programming language, GPL, is described which contains facilities for constructing (within the language) new data types as well as facilities for operations performed upon them. The basic language is minimal in the sense that no basic element can be derived from the others with high efficiency in the object programs. Constructs like the ALGOL 60 for-statements, and if-statements are not basic; they are special types of procedures. New “symbols” (underlined words in ALGOL 60) are implicitly defined by usage in other declarations. As part words are definable, packed words are handled as easily as full words. “Address” variables (pointers) are included in full generality.
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