Ray

Ray was a computer language developed in the early 1970s by a group of students from the University of Cambridge. It was designed as a simple language to introduce novices to computing concepts. The language and its implementation were heavily inspired by the languages of the time, such as FORTRAN and LISP. Its goal was to enable quick and easy programming while offering the full power of a powerful language.

Ray was designed to be simple, with its user using English-like commands and commands like WRITE, READ, and PRINT. It was capable of running both programs written in its own language as well as in FORTRAN. Ray was also designed to be implemented on a range of different computers including the IBM 1130, the PDP-11, and the PDP-10.

Ray initially saw popularity amongst computer scientists and instructors. It was used in a variety of educational programs and was a key component in the British National Computing Centre’s ability to deliver lessons remotely.

Despite its initial popularity, by the mid-1980s, Ray had become less widely used as more powerful languages such as C and Pascal emerged. It was eventually replaced by the Cambridge WRT (Web Ray Toolkit) which was a higher level language.

Today, Ray is primarily remembered for its role in introducing novices to the concept of computing. Its user-friendly commands and capability of running both programs written in its own language and in FORTRAN helped make it a key milestone in computer programming.