Systems Programming Language

Systems Programming Language, often shortened to SPL but sometimes known as SPL/3000, was a <a href="/facts/Procedural_programming/7r5xz7kx">procedurally-oriented</a> <a href="/facts/Programming_language/cWTYbgWa">programming language</a> written by <a href="/facts/Hewlett-Packard/abuNSYNu">Hewlett-Packard</a> for the <a href="/facts/HP_3000/JFcG25Fv">HP 3000</a> <a href="/facts/Minicomputer/g8hvpQxe">minicomputer</a> line and first introduced in 1972. SPL was used to write the HP 3000's primary <a href="/facts/Operating_system/8XTuvMh2">operating system</a>, <a href="/facts/Multi-Programming_Executive/sqWtI9Qh">Multi-Programming Executive</a> (MPE). Similar languages on other platforms were generically referred to as <a href="/facts/System_programming_language/KogoSQVR">system programming languages</a>, confusing matters.
Originally known as Alpha Systems Programming Language, named for the development project that produced the 3000-series, SPL was designed to take advantage of the Alpha's <a href="/facts/Stack_machine/IBtk4NRA">stack-based processor</a> design. It is patterned on <a href="/facts/Executive_Systems_Problem_Oriented_Language/7NC3b7aL">ESPOL</a>, a similar <a href="/facts/ALGOL/wlFJGNEx">ALGOL</a>-derived language used by the <a href="/facts/Burroughs_B5000/FwY7EqrB">Burroughs B5000</a> <a href="/facts/Mainframe/nrBR6rWa">mainframe</a> systems, which also influenced a number of 1960s languages like <a href="/facts/PL360/7r9ScSVj">PL360</a> and <a href="/facts/JOVIAL/1xLISDrj">JOVIAL</a>.
Through the mid-1970s, the success of the HP systems produced a number of SPL offshoots. Examples include ZSPL for the <a href="/facts/Zilog_Z80/Jeqe2h55">Zilog Z80</a> processor, and Micro-SPL for the <a href="/facts/Xerox_Alto/6pjFTD0A">Xerox Alto</a>. The later inspired <a href="/facts/Action!_(programming_language)/JQAjWMFt">Action!</a> for <a href="/facts/Atari_8-bit_computers/aT04N5zR">Atari 8-bit computers</a>, which was fairly successful. The latter more closely followed <a href="/facts/Pascal_programming_language/b3yvp8bF">Pascal</a> syntax, losing some of SPL's idiosyncrasies.
SPL was widely used during the lifetime of the original 16-bit version of the HP 3000 platform. In the 1980s, the HP 3000 and MPE were reimplemented in an <a href="/facts/Emulator/FMHE8qDj">emulator</a> running on the <a href="/facts/PA-RISC/gjDs1HEh">PA-RISC</a>-based <a href="/facts/HP_9000/aD9CCWHq">HP 9000</a> platforms. HP promoted Pascal as the favored system language on PA-RISC and did not provide an SPL compiler. This caused <a href="/facts/Code_maintenance/Uv39zQb0">code maintenance</a> concerns, and 3rd party SPL <a href="/facts/Compiler/WNfCDFJe">compilers</a> were introduced to fill this need.

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Systems Programming Language