Stories about the Danish programming language COMAL in the world wanted!

[mikjaer]

Hey, my name is Mike, I am currently working on a book about some Danish computers, and part of that book will be the story about the Danish developed programming language Comal, which was actually relatively popular outside of Denmark. According to some of my sources "most of the western countries uses it to some degree". I know about Len Lindsays user group in the states, and I already spoke with him about it. (However I have not heard from him in a while, anybody knows if he's okay?) But I would like to hear stories from other countries, where Comal have been used, what was is used for, how it got to those countries and if possible speak to the people from back then if they are still alive.

If anybody else have something else interesting with connections to Denmark I would like to hear about it as well, either reply in this thread or e-mail me directly at mikkel@mikjaer.com

 

[bifo86]

I took a small interest in it as a more powerful/interesting language to use on Z80 based machines a few years ago and if I recall correctly the epicenter of Comal use in the english speaking (sort of) world was Ireland, where it was chosen as an official educational programming language for schools. There are a few books in english about Comal that are probably worth seeking out, of course, but they're difficult to find. I think this might be the Irish textbook: https://archive.org/details/foundations-in-computer-studies-with-comal_2nd-ed-1984/mode/2up

 

[Ruud]

The only thing about Comal in regard to Commodore I know is that there exists a Comal cartridge for the C64/128. Just google "commodore comal cartridge" and see for yourself. I had one but gave it away to the Dutch Commodore Club (HCC Commodore GG). I still either program my Commodores using BASIC or ML and found it a bit of waist of time to learn yet another language (sorry).

 

[bifo86]

I would imagine that this has also come up: https://github.com/kneth/OpenCOMAL - I just noticed there's a Gaelic version of the readme file.


The three easier to find english language books are Starting with COMAL, The COMAL Handbook, and Structured Programming with COMAL. Starting with COMAL is, I believe, a translation of a Swedish workbook, ISBN 0-13-843003-9. The COMAL Handbook is a reference book full of subroutine printouts, explicitly intended for Commodore C64 COMAL, ISBN 0-8359-0784-8. Structured Programming with COMAL is a small hardcover textbook, ISBN 0-85312-416-7 (UK) or 0-470-27318-6 (US).