The Making of the MCM/70 - Inventing the PC - page 47

Morgan Smyth (left), Don Genner, André Arpin, and Gordon Ramer
(right) at York University, Toronto, 2001. (Source: York University
Computer Museum, photograph by Z. Stachniak.)
before. Ramer implemented his York APL with the assistance
of Genner, who also worked at York University Computer
Centre. Smyth was among the first users of the York APL and
he frequently commuted between his workplace - then called
Ryerson Polytechnic Institute in Toronto - and York University
to discuss the implementation issues of York APL with Ramer
and Genner. At MCM , the trio would develop one of the first
high-level programming languages for a microprocessor: Ramer
would design it, Genner would help with its implementation,
and Smyth would document it in the excellent MCM /70 User's
Guide , published by MCM in 1974.
But how does one develop an APL language for a computer
that does not exist, even on paper? To answer this question,
Laraya pointed out that “they [Ramer and Genner] knew it
would be an 8-bit computer and they were fascinated by the
fact that it would run on this 8-bit single chip.” Having only the