From 152419ad5780491fd3a0a253287aa0eea599ecc6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Jason Self Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2016 18:04:29 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] Adding initial readme file. --- readme.md | 72 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 72 insertions(+) create mode 100644 readme.md diff --git a/readme.md b/readme.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..81942ef --- /dev/null +++ b/readme.md @@ -0,0 +1,72 @@ +The Muddle programming languge is a member of the Lisp family. It +started at MIT's Project MAC. + +It's hard to pin down exactly when development began. The first +documented reference to it seems to be in the Project MAC Progress +Report VIII at which +covered the period of July 1970 to July 1971 although some have +claimed as early as 1969 but provide no sources. + +The original MIT-DMS (along with other historically important systems +like AI, MC, anmd ML) were KA- and KL-10 based PDP-10 systems running +the Incompatible Timesharing System (ITS.) When they were retired in +1982, four KS-10 systems ("DECSYSTEM-2020") were put in their place in +order to keep ITS running. These were retired from service around 1995. + +This mudman.git repository is named after the MUDMAN directory on +MIT-DMS, which contained documentation about Muddle. + +Many people have worked on Muddle in one aspect or other over the +years. These include (in alphabetical order by first name): Brian +Berkowitz, Bruce Daniels, Carl Hewitt, Chris Reeve, Dave Lebling, +David Cressey, Gerald Sussman, Greg Pfister, Jim Michener, Joel Berez, +Marc Blank, Michael Broos, Neal Ryan, Roger Banks, Stu Galley, Sue +Pitkin, Tak To, Tim Anderson and others that will probably never be +known. + +This represents an effort to preseve information about the Muddle +programming language by migrating the documentation from aging books +into modern formats. Despite efforts to preserve the documentation as +much as possible one change is made: Changing MDL references back to +Muddle. + +In talking to people that originally worked on the language it was +always called Muddle. + +The Muddle name was in the MIT AI Lab's tradition of naming Lisp +dialects with somewhat sarcastic names. Reference other names from +there like Planner, Scheme (which was actually named Schemer but ITS +limited file names to a maximum of 6 characters), Conniver, etc. and +it shows a pattern. Chris Reeve says that the Muddle name came from +the nickname of the Project MAC Dynamic Modeling Group from either +Gerald Sussman and/or Carl Hewitt, which was "Dynamic Muddlers." + +The MDL name was actually invented by an administrator at the project +that feared losing DARPA funding over a funny name. No one actually +called it "MDL" except in documents DARPA might see and even then they +wrote "MDL" but said "Muddle." The name "MIT Design Language" is, +consequently, a backronym. + +The Muddle name itself eventually got a backronym of "MAC's User +Defined Data and Language Evaluator", with "MAC" representing "Project +MAC". + +Changing the MDL references back to Muddle is believed to be in +support of the original naming decision of those that made the +language, especially since there are no longer any DARPA funding +concerns. + +The documents in this repository, including this one, are made +following the CommonMark specification: . + +Converting them to other formats requires that cmark, which is the +reference implementation of Commonmark in C from + or Pandoc from or +some other program that can understand CommonMark be installed on your +system. + +--- + +This document by Jason Self is licensed under the Creative Commons +Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License and all future +versions: . -- 2.31.1