Mesa

Xerox PARC, 1977. System and application programming for

proprietary hardware: Alto, Dolphin, Dorado and Dandelion.

Pascal-like syntax, ALGOL68-like semantics. An early version

was weakly typed. Mesa's modules with separately compilable

definition and implementation parts directly led to Wirth's

design for Modula. Threads, coroutines (fork/join),

exceptions, and monitors. Type checking may be disabled.

Mesa was used internally by Xerox to develop ViewPoint, the

Xerox Star, MDE, and the controller of a high-end copier. It

was released to a few universitites in 1985. Succeeded by

Cedar.

["Mesa Language Manual", J.G. Mitchell et al, Xerox PARC,

CSL-79-3 (Apr 1979)].

["Early Experience with Mesa", Geschke et al, CACM

20(8):540-552 (Aug 1977)].