Despite many common concepts with classical computer science, quantum
computing is still widely considered as a special discipline within the
broad field of theoretical physics.  One reason for the slow adoption of
QC by the computer science community is the confusing variety of
formalisms (Dirac notation, matrices, gates, operators, etc.), none of
which has any similarity with classical programming languages, as well
as the rather ``physical'' terminology in most of the available
literature.

QCL (Quantum Computation Language) tries to fill this gap: QCL is a
hight level, architecture independent programming language for quantum
computers, with a syntax derived from classical procedural languages
like C or Pascal.  This allows for the complete implementation and
simulation of quantum algorithms (including classical components) in one
consistent formalism.