Extract
The work described here represents one stage of what is hoped will be continuing development of a series of software methods which may release computer users and manufacturers from the obligation to discard vast quantities of software when hardware is to be changed. The object of this paper is to describe the initial transfer of imp compilers from the Edinburgh Regional Computing Centre’s ICL System 4 to its IBM System/360 and to follow through the development, over a period of six months, of environments on the two machines which provide complete interchangeability of object programs, including compilers, external routines and libraries, between the two machines.

Up to August 1969 the base load of the university’s computing work was carried on the Regional Centre’s English Electric KDF9 computer. Programs were very largely written in Atlas Autocode [1], as developed in Edinburgh [2] for the KDF9. During 1968 and 1969 the imp language [3], [4] was further being developed from Atlas Autocode for software implementation and for general use. This language has looked specifically towards byte-oriented machines whilst attempting to achieve maximum independence of machine-dependent and operating-system-dependent concepts: generally, functions linked with such concepts have been removed from the language and are fulfilled through calls on external routines or through the job control statements of the machine’s operating system.


https://academic.oup.com/itnow/article-abstract/13/7/219/8156298