PL/M

A language introduced in 1972 by Gary Kildall to allow development of computer programs for 4 and 8 bit microcomputers, full name being Programming Language for Microcomputers. Initially a very minimalistic version of PL/I that lacked even a standard I/O but later versions added features from sundry languages, which makes the latter PL/M releases somewhat unlike PL/I in many respects. Kildall sold the rights to his compiler to Intel who sold a version of the language for about 30 years mainly targeting the embedded market, but in addition he used the language to develop the CP/M operating system and used it as the main development language of Digital Research until the mid 80s. Digital released a PL/I compiler at the end of the decade for CP/M that implemented a properly defined subset of the language and that toolkit was later ported to DOS.

Implementations

 * CP/M
 * Intel PL/M-80
 * DOS
 * Intel PL/M-86
 * Intel PL/M-386

Text Editor Support

 * Lugaru Epsilon - PL/M syntax highlighting and auto-indent available as a separate download.

Publications

 * McCracken: A Guide to PL/M Programming for Microcomputer Applications - Addison-Wesley 1978, ISBN 0-201-04575-3