苹果公司早期员工Jef Raskin在1979年提出了一个名为Apple Calculator Language的计算器编程语言提案[1]。这个语言采用严格的从左到右计算方式,不遵循传统的运算优先级规则,例如6/3+2*5会得到20而非16[1]。该语言引入了"clump"(数据块)的概念来处理相邻数字,将"34 5 67"这样的数字序列视为一个整体[1]。
Raskin的原始草稿中包含了对当时多种编程语言的评价,涉及ALGOL、APL、BASIC、Cobol、Fortran、Lisp、Pascal、PL/1和SNOBOL等[1]。他对BASIC特别持批评态度[1]。原始提案中的162个示例在后来的实现中完全可以运行,尽管有4个示例与规则产生了矛盾[1]。开发者使用Claude Opus 5构建了该语言的可运行实现版本[1]。
Jef Raskin, an early Apple employee, proposed a calculator-based programming language in 1979 that fundamentally departed from conventional arithmetic rules [1]. The language, known as the Apple Calculator Language, enforced strict left-to-right evaluation without regard for operator precedence—meaning an expression like 6/3+2*5 would evaluate to 20 rather than 16 [1]. This approach reflected Raskin's distinctive vision for how calculations should be processed in a computational environment.
The language introduced the concept of "clumps" to handle adjacent numerals as unified data blocks, so that sequences like "34 5 67" would be treated as a single entity rather than separate values [1]. Raskin's design philosophy extended beyond the calculator language itself; his documentation from the period contained assessments of contemporary programming languages including ALGOL, APL, BASIC, COBOL, Fortran, Lisp, Pascal, PL/1, and SNOBOL [1]. He was notably critical of BASIC, which he considered inadequate [1].
The original proposal included 162 examples, of which a working implementation successfully executed all but four—those four examples contained contradictions with the established rules [1]. A functional version of the language was later constructed using Claude Opus 5, allowing Raskin's decades-old concept to be operationalized and tested [1].