In the spring of 1965 the authors decided to prepare and publish a Reference Manual which would contain a complete description of CPL as it then stood. The first draft was prepared by J.N. Buxton after a series of meetings at which the authors discussed the points at issue. A second draft was then prepared by Buxton, Hartley, Richards, Coulouris and Park, each one writing one or more sections. These were then revised, edited and partly rewritten by Strachey.

This is a loose-leaf notebook containing the typescript of portions of Draft I and the whole of Draft II. It is heavily annotated by Strachey with some amendments by Park. This is the copy used by Strachey at M.I.T. when editing and revising the Manual. The various sections of the draft are dated August-September 1965.