<s>
ECL	B-Language
(	O
Enterprise	B-Language
Control	I-Language
Language	I-Language
)	O
is	O
a	O
declarative	B-Language
,	O
data-centric	B-Operating_System
programming	I-Operating_System
language	I-Operating_System
designed	O
in	O
2000	O
to	O
allow	O
a	O
team	O
of	O
programmers	O
to	O
process	O
big	B-Application
data	I-Application
across	O
a	O
high	B-Operating_System
performance	I-Operating_System
computing	I-Operating_System
cluster	I-Operating_System
without	O
the	O
programmer	O
being	O
involved	O
in	O
many	O
of	O
the	O
lower	O
level	O
,	O
imperative	O
decisions	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
ECL	B-Language
was	O
initially	O
designed	O
and	O
developed	O
in	O
2000	O
by	O
David	O
Bayliss	O
as	O
an	O
in-house	O
productivity	O
tool	O
within	O
Seisint	B-Library
Inc	I-Library
and	O
was	O
considered	O
to	O
be	O
a	O
‘	O
secret	O
weapon’	O
that	O
allowed	O
Seisint	B-Library
to	O
gain	O
market	O
share	O
in	O
its	O
data	O
business	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Equifax	O
had	O
an	O
SQL-based	O
process	O
for	O
predicting	O
who	O
would	O
go	O
bankrupt	O
in	O
the	O
next	O
30	O
days	O
,	O
but	O
it	O
took	O
26	O
days	O
to	O
run	O
the	O
data	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
first	O
ECL	B-Language
implementation	O
solved	O
the	O
same	O
problem	O
in	O
6	O
minutes	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
technology	O
was	O
cited	O
as	O
a	O
driving	O
force	O
behind	O
the	O
acquisition	O
of	O
Seisint	B-Library
by	O
LexisNexis	B-Library
and	O
then	O
again	O
as	O
a	O
major	O
source	O
of	O
synergies	O
when	O
LexisNexis	B-Library
acquired	O
ChoicePoint	O
Inc	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
ECL	B-Language
,	O
at	O
least	O
in	O
its	O
purest	O
form	O
,	O
is	O
a	O
declarative	B-Language
,	O
data-centric	B-Operating_System
language	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Rather	O
an	O
ECL	B-Language
application	O
will	O
specify	O
a	O
number	O
of	O
core	O
datasets	O
(	O
or	O
data	O
values	O
)	O
and	O
then	O
the	O
operations	O
which	O
are	O
to	O
be	O
performed	O
on	O
those	O
values	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
ECL	B-Language
is	O
to	O
have	O
succinct	O
solutions	O
to	O
problems	O
and	O
sensible	O
defaults	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
statements	O
containing	O
a	O
:=	O
are	O
defined	O
in	O
ECL	B-Language
as	O
attribute	O
definitions	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Whilst	O
ECL	B-Language
is	O
terse	O
and	O
LexisNexis	B-Library
claims	O
that	O
1	O
line	O
of	O
ECL	B-Language
is	O
roughly	O
equivalent	O
to	O
120	O
lines	O
of	O
C++	B-Language
,	O
it	O
still	O
has	O
significant	O
support	O
for	O
large	O
scale	O
programming	O
including	O
data	O
encapsulation	O
and	O
code	O
re-use	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
the	O
HPCC	B-Operating_System
implementation	O
,	O
by	O
default	O
,	O
most	O
ECL	B-Language
constructs	O
will	O
execute	O
in	O
parallel	O
across	O
the	O
hardware	O
being	O
used	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
Hadoop	B-Application
Map-Reduce	O
paradigm	O
consists	O
of	O
three	O
phases	O
which	O
correlate	O
to	O
ECL	B-Language
primitives	O
as	O
follows	O
.	O
</s>
