Title: You Write, The Editor Replies

Dear Francis,

I was interested to read about BCPL and MCPL in Silas's article, "Using Bit Patterns" (C Vu 11.4), having first looked at BCPL about 15 years ago. I know nothing about MCPL, but BCPL certainly didn't require integers to be 32 bits. Its standard library header had a manifest constant called BITSPERWORD. Unlike C, which uses byte addressing, BCPL used word addressing. This made it just as easy to use on systems like the 36-bit word-addressed DEC-20 (where I first encountered BCPL) as on a 16-bit BBC Micro. A pointer always addressed a whole word and the language had facilities for packing text strings with multiple characters per word. Seconding your wish, I too would be interested to read about MCPL, if someone could be found to write about it.

Klitos Kyriacou <klitos.kyriacou@reuters.com>

P.S. A suggestion that's perhaps too late now that Centaur will take over production of C Vu. You currently remind readers of the copy deadlines on the inside front cover of each issue. How about also including the e-mail address to send articles to.

Thanks for the information. Perhaps members (particularly in academia) could see if they could get someone to write an overview of MCPL. I am also interested in one or more articles on the subject of using bit-patterns.

As to the email address for submissions, that has been on the every front cover of C Vu for yearsJ And even with Centaur taking over production material will still have to be sent to the appropriate editor.