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Research Article
The BLISS programming language: a history
Article first published online: 12 JUL 2002
DOI: 10.1002/spe.470
Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
1097-024X/asset/cover.gif?v=1&s=5a70ecca2928358eca4ff75b9921d0552ffb6539 "Software: Practice and Experience")
Additional Information
How to Cite
Brender, R. F. (2002), The BLISS programming language: a history. Software: Practice and Experience, 32: 955–981. doi: 10.1002/spe.470
Publication History
- Issue published online: 12 JUL 2002
- Article first published online: 12 JUL 2002
- Manuscript Accepted: 16 MAR 2002
- Manuscript Revised: 15 MAR 2002
- Manuscript Received: 15 AUG 2000
- Abstract
- References
- Cited By
Keywords:
- BLISS;
- history;
- machine-oriented language;
- portable programming;
- system implementation language
Abstract
The BLISS programming language was invented by William A. Wulf and others at Carnegie-Mellon University in 1969, originally for the DEC PDP-10. BLISS-10 caught the interest of Ronald F. Brender of DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation). After several years of collaboration, including the creation of BLISS-11 for the PDP-11, BLISS was adopted as DEC's implementation language for use on its new line of VAX computers in 1975. DEC developed a completely new generation of BLISSs for the VAX, PDP-10 and PDP-11, which became widely used at DEC during the 1970s and 1980s. With the creation of the Alpha architecture in the early 1990s, BLISS was extended again, in both 32- and 64-bit flavors. BLISS support for the Intel IA-32 architecture was introduced in 1995 and IA-64 support is now in progress.
BLISS has a number of unusual characteristics: it is typeless, requires use of an explicit contents of operator (written as a period or ‘dot’), takes an algorithmic approach to data structure definition, has no goto, is an expression language, and has an unusually rich compile-time language.
This paper reviews the evolution and use of BLISS over its three decade lifetime. Emphasis is on how the language evolved to facilitate portable programming while retaining its initial highly machine-specific character. Finally, the success of its characteristics are assessed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.