Editing XPL (section)

{{Short description|Dialect of the PL/I programming language}}
{{About|a dialect of the PL/I programming language|the meaning of the term and other uses}}
'''XPL''', for '''expert's programming language'''<ref> {{cite journal
 |first=John |last=Slimick
 |title=Current Systems Implementation Languages: One User's View
 |journal=ACM SIGPLAN Notices
 |date=October 1971
 |volume=6 |issue=9
 |pages=20-28
 |doi=10.1145/942596.807056
 |url=http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/stanford/sail/STAN-CS-76-574_SAIL_Aug76.pdf
}}</ref> is a [[programming language]] based on [[PL/I]], a portable [[one-pass compiler]] written in its own language, and a [[parser generator]] tool for easily implementing similar compilers for other languages.  XPL was designed in 1967 as a way to teach compiler design principles and as starting point for students to build compilers for their own languages.

XPL was designed and implemented by [[William M. McKeeman]],<ref name="Shustek_2016">{{cite web |url=http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/in-his-own-words-gary-kildall/ |title=In His Own Words: Gary Kildall |author-first=Len |author-last=Shustek |date=2016-08-02 |work=Remarkable People |publisher=[[Computer History Museum]]}}</ref><ref name="Kildall_1993">{{cite web |orig-year=1993 |date=2016-08-02 |title=Computer Connections: People, Places, and Events in the Evolution of the Personal Computer Industry |author-first=Gary Arlen |author-last=Kildall |author-link=Gary Arlen Kildall |editor-first1=Scott |editor-last1=Kildall |editor-link=Scott Kildall |editor-first2=Kristin |editor-last2=Kildall |publisher=Kildall Family |type=Manuscript, part 1 |url=https://d1yx3ys82bpsa0.cloudfront.net/kildall-p.1-78-publishable-lowres.pdf |access-date=2016-11-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200624231947/https://d1yx3ys82bpsa0.cloudfront.net/kildall-p.1-78-publishable-lowres.pdf |archive-date=2020-06-24 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[David Wortman|David B. Wortman]], [[Jim Horning|James J. Horning]] and others at [[Stanford University]]. XPL was first announced at the 1968 [[Fall Joint Computer Conference]].  The methods and compiler are described in detail in the 1971 textbook ''A Compiler Generator''.

They called the combined work a 'compiler generator'.  But that implies little or no language- or target-specific programming is required to build a compiler for a new language or new target.  A better label for XPL is a [[Translator (computing)|translator]] writing system.  It helps to write a compiler with less new or changed programming code.