Editing PL/M (section)

==Overview==
The language incorporated ideas from PL/I and XPL,<ref name="Shustek_2016"/><ref name="Kildall_1993"/> and had an integrated [[Macro (computer science)|macro processor]]. As a graduate of the [[University of Washington]] Kildall had used their [[Burroughs B5500]] computer,<ref name="Kildall_1970_UW"/> and as such was aware of the potential of high-level languages such as [[Executive Systems Problem Oriented Language|ESPOL]] for systems programming.

Unlike other contemporary languages such as [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]] or [[BASIC]], PL/M had no standard input or output routines. It included features targeted at the low-level hardware specific to the target microprocessors, and as such, it could support direct access to any location in memory, I/O ports and the processor interrupt flags in a very efficient manner. PL/M was the first higher level programming language for microprocessor-based computers and was the original implementation language for those parts of the [[CP/M]] operating system which were not written in assembler. Many Intel and [[Zilog Z80]]-based [[embedded system]]s were programmed in PL/M during the 1970s and 1980s. For instance, the [[firmware]] of the Service Processor component of CISC [[IBM AS/400]] was written in PL/M.

The original PL/M [[compiler]] targeted the [[Intel 8008]].<ref name="Kildall_1974"/> An updated version (PL/M-80) generated code for the [[Intel 8080|8080]] processor, which would also run on the newer [[Intel 8085]] as well as on the Zilog Z80 family (as it is [[backward-compatible]] with the 8080). Later followed compilers for the [[Intel 8048]] and [[Intel 8051]]-microcontroller family (PL/M-51) as well as for the [[Intel 8086|8086 (8088)]] (PL/M-86), [[Intel 80186|80186 (80188)]] and subsequent 8086-based processors, including the advanced [[Intel 80286|80286]] and the 32-bit [[Intel 80386|80386]]. There were also PL/M compilers developed for later microcontrollers, such as the [[Intel 8061]] and 8096 / [[Intel MCS-96|MCS-96]] architecture family (PL/M-96).<ref name="Intel_1983_SH"/>

While some PL/M compilers were "native", meaning that they ran on systems using that same microprocessor, e.g. for the Intel [[ISIS (operating system)|ISIS]] operating system, there were also [[cross compiler]]s, for instance [[PLMX]], which ran on other operating environments such as [[Digital Research]] CP/M, [[Microsoft]]'s [[DOS]], and [[Digital Equipment Corporation]]'s [[OpenVMS|VAX/VMS]].

'''PL/M''' is no longer supported by Intel, but aftermarket tools like PL/M-to-C [[source-code translator]]s exist.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}