BPL is a programming language which was developed from the two languages BASIC and Pascal. The chief aim in designing BPL was to create a language as simple to use as BASIC with the additional data types and control structures which make Pascal attractive to use. It is intended in the first instance as a language to teach programming but it can be used for any application where BASIC might have been used, and in many such cases it is simpler to use and the result more readable than if BASIC had been used. For instance, the record facilities make the language more amenable to commercial applications, and the pointer facilities to manipulating complex linked data structures.