Judging by the name and by these opcodes

https://github.com/emacs-mirror/emacs/blob/7cb77385d38b96377...

it seems to be intended for character set conversion especially JIS.

The source code mentioned in the article is well documented and an interesting read too; e.g.:

https://github.com/emacs-mirror/emacs/blob/master/src/ccl.c

I have used Emacs since 1986 or so, daily since 1989 (with smaller breaks while working at companies where it was not available). I had no idea this exists.

Here is my first CCL program.

   (define-ccl-program hw
     '(1
       (loop
        (write r0 [72 101 108 111])
        (r1 += 1)
        (if (r1 == 3) (repeat) ())
        (r0 += 1)
        (if (r0 < 4) (repeat) (break))
        )
       )
       )

   (ccl-execute-on-string
   'hw
   [0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1] "")

Tested in *scratch* buffer, worked. Probably not very idiomatic...

Interesting. I've been using Emacs for 6 years and have never heard of CCL. I would love to read a book on all the strange and fascinating code that Emacs has accumulated over the years.

Title should say (2019)