PILOT is a programming system constructed in LISP. It is designed to facilitate the development of programs by easing the familiar sequence: write some code, run the program, make some changes, write some more code, run the program again, make some changes, write some more code, run the program again, etc. As a program becomes more complex, making these changes becomes harder and harder because the implications of changes are harder to anticipate. In the PILOT system, the computer plays an active role in this evolutionary process by providing the means whereby changes can be effected immediately, and in ways that seem natural to the user. The user of PILOT feels that he is giving advice, or making suggestions, to the computer about the operation of his programs, and that the system then performs the work necessary. The PILOT system is thus an interface between the user and his program, monitoring both the requests of the user and the operation of his program. The user may easily modify the PILOT system itself by giving it advice about its own operation. This allows him to develop his own language and to shift gradually onto PILOT the burden of performing routine but increasingly complicated tasks. In this way, he can concentrate on the menial tasks of editing rewriting, or adding to his programs. Two detailed examples are presented. PILOT is a first step toward computer systems that will help man to formulate problems in the same way they now help him to solve them. Experience with it supports the claim that such "symbiotic systems" allow the programmer to attack and solve more difficult problems.
Cited By
- Yang D, Hussain A and Lopes C From query to usable code Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories, (391-402)
- El-Mouadib F, Zubi Z, Almagrous A and El-Feghi I (2009). Interactive natural language interface, WSEAS Transactions on Computers, 8:4, (661-680), Online publication date: 1-Apr-2009.
- Cox R, Bergan T, Clements A, Kaashoek F and Kohler E Xoc, an extension-oriented compiler for systems programming Proceedings of the 13th international conference on Architectural support for programming languages and operating systems, (244-254)
- Cox R, Bergan T, Clements A, Kaashoek F and Kohler E (2008). Xoc, an extension-oriented compiler for systems programming, ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News, 36:1, (244-254), Online publication date: 25-Mar-2008.
- Cox R, Bergan T, Clements A, Kaashoek F and Kohler E (2008). Xoc, an extension-oriented compiler for systems programming, ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review, 42:2, (244-254), Online publication date: 25-Mar-2008.
- Cox R, Bergan T, Clements A, Kaashoek F and Kohler E (2008). Xoc, an extension-oriented compiler for systems programming, ACM SIGPLAN Notices, 43:3, (244-254), Online publication date: 25-Mar-2008.
- Costanza P, Gabriel R, Hirschfeld R and Steele G Lisp50 Companion to the 23rd ACM SIGPLAN conference on Object-oriented programming systems languages and applications, (853-854)
- Steele G and Gabriel R The evolution of Lisp History of programming languages---II, (233-330)
- Fateman R The user-level semantic matching capability in MACSYMA Proceedings of the second ACM symposium on Symbolic and algebraic manipulation, (311-323)
- Schwarcz R, Burger J and Simmons R (1970). A deductive question-answerer for natural language inference, Communications of the ACM, 13:3, (167-183), Online publication date: 1-Mar-1970.
- Hodes L (1970). A programming system for the on-line analysis of biomedical images, Communications of the ACM, 13:5, (279-283), Online publication date: 1-May-1970.
Recommendations
Computer Industry Pioneer: Erwin Tomash (1921-2012)
Computer industry pioneer and visionary cofounder (with his wife Adelle Tomash) of the Charles Babbage Foundation (CBF) and the Charles Babbage Institute (CBI), Erwin Tomash passed away on 10 December 2012. In the late 1940s, Tomash was an engineer at ...
The Manchester Computer: A Revised History Part 2: The Baby Computer
The logical design of the 1948 Manchester Baby was virtually identical to a 1946 Princeton design. However, thanks to F.C. Williams' and Tom Kilburn's groundbreaking cathode ray tube (CRT) memory and their innovative engineering, the universal ...
The Manchester Computer: A Revised History Part 1: The Memory
The Manchester Baby, built by F.C. Williams and Tom Kilburn and operational in June 1948, was the first stored-program electronic computer. The Williams-Kilburn tube memory, pioneered in the Baby, was subsequently adopted in many first-generation ...