Editing CORAL (section)

== Overview ==

Coral 66 is a [[general-purpose programming language]] based on [[ALGOL 60]], with some features from Coral 64, [[JOVIAL]], and [[Fortran]]. It includes structured record types (as in [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]]) and supports the packing of data into limited storage (also as in Pascal). Like [[Edinburgh IMP]] it allows [[Inline assembler|inline]] (embedded) [[assembly language]], and also offers good [[Runtime (program lifecycle phase)|runtime]] checking and diagnostics. It is designed for [[real-time computing]] and [[embedded system]] applications, and for use on computers with limited processing power, including those limited to [[fixed-point arithmetic]] and those without support for dynamic storage allocation.

The language was an inter-service standard for British military programming,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Coral 66 - Language Reference Manual - Manual - Computing History |url=https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/32364/Coral-66-Language-Reference-Manual/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230731185340/https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/32364/Coral-66-Language-Reference-Manual/ |archive-date=2023-07-31 |access-date=2023-07-31 |website=www.computinghistory.org.uk}}</ref> and was also widely adopted for civil purposes in the British control and automation industry. It was used to write software for both the [[Ferranti]]<ref name=RSRE799->{{cite report |url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA084068 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210317073041/http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA084068 |url-status=live |archive-date=17 March 2021 |title=The Coral 66 Compiler for Ferranti ARGUS 500 Computer |last=Gorman |first=B |publisher=Royal Signals and Radar Establishment |date=June 1978 |id=Technical Note 799 |access-date=17 January 2018}}</ref> and [[GEC Computers|General Electric Company]] (GEC) computers from 1971 onwards. Implementations also exist for the Interdata 8/32, [[PDP-11]], [[VAX]] and [[DEC Alpha|Alpha]] platforms and [[HPE Integrity Servers]]; for the [[Honeywell]], and for the [[Computer Technology Limited]] (CTL, later ITL) [[Computer Technology Limited#Modular One|Modular-1]];<ref name=nsci-19721130/> and for [[SPARC]] running [[Solaris (operating system)|Solaris]], and [[Intel]] running [[Linux]].

Queen [[Elizabeth II]] sent the first email from a [[head of state]] from the [[Royal Signals and Radar Establishment]] over the [[ARPANET]] on March 26, 1976. The message read "This message to all ARPANET users announces the availability on ARPANET of the Coral 66 compiler provided by the [[GEC 4000 series|GEC 4080]] computer at the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment, Malvern, England, ... Coral 66 is the standard real-time high level language adopted by the [[Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Defence]]."<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.wired.com/2012/12/queen-and-the-internet/ |title=How the Queen of England Beat Everyone to the Internet |last=Metz |first=Cade |date=2012-12-25 |work=Wired |access-date=2020-01-09 |issn=1059-1028}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Left |first=Sarah |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2002/mar/13/internetnews |title=Email timeline |date=2002-03-13 |work=The Guardian |access-date=2020-01-09 |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

As Coral was aimed at a variety of real-time work, rather than general office data processing, there was no standardised equivalent to a [[stdio]] [[Library (computing)|library]]. IECCA recommended a primitive [[input/output]] (I/O) package to accompany any compiler (in a document titled ''Input/Output of Character data in Coral 66 Utility Programs''). Most implementers avoided this by producing Coral interfaces to extant Fortran and, later, [[C (programming language)|C]] libraries.

CORAL's most significant contribution to computing may have been enforcing [[quality control]] in commercial [[compiler]]s.<ref name="nsci-19721130">{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dkUzDol9AcQC |title=Lucid language may help European computers |magazine=New Scientist |page=513 |date=30 November 1972 |access-date=8 April 2019}}</ref> To have a CORAL compiler approved by IECCA, and thus allowing a compiler to be marketed as a CORAL 66 compiler, the candidate compiler had to compile and execute a standard suite of 25 test programs and 6 benchmark programs. The process was part of the [[British Standard]] (BS) 5905 approval process. This methodology was observed and adapted later by the [[United States Department of Defense]] for the certification of [[Ada (programming language)|Ada]] compilers.

[[Source code]] for a Coral 66 compiler (written in [[BCPL]]) has been recovered and the ''Official Definition of Coral 66'' document by [[Office of Public Sector Information|Her Majesty's Stationery Office]] (HMSO) has been scanned; the Ministry of Defence patent office has issued a licence to the Edinburgh Computer History project to allow them to put both the code and the language reference online for non-commercial use.