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)].