🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <20136.2...@merrimack.edu>, ger...@merrimack.edu writes:
> In article <1990Oct01.142833.11862@virtech.uucp>, jje@virtech.uucp (Jeremy J. Epstein) writes:
> > In article <15...@bfmny0.BFM.COM>, tn...@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff) writes:
> >> Well then, here's a likely topic for discussion:
.  .  .
> > In my compiler writing class, we developed something called "HUMPTY".
> > I don't remember what it stood for.  It had ALGOL-60 control structure,
> > SNOBOL string processing, LISP list processing, and a few other things.
> > We wrote our compilers in PL360 on IBM 360s using cards....
> 
> I can't cite a reference, but I once came across a derivative of SNOBOL
> called (no kidding) SPITBOL...
> 
> (Anyone have a reference on this?)

Yu[, there was a SPITBOL and, yes, it was a follow-on to
SNOBOL (the explanation I heard was that "SPITBOL was a
much faster SNOBOL" :-)

It's a pattern-matching and string manipulation language,
with each line consisting of (I think) three fields. The
first field was a pattern, that if matched, led you to
execute the code in the middle field (which principly
appended, deleted, added and otherwise manipulated
strings) The third field was the target and specified
which line to go to next.

It was actually quite a neat language. I learned it in my
Comparative Language class, where we did three or four
different languages, each using a different programming
paradigm (the others included Lisp and (eek!) PL-1).

I ran it on the university's mainframe (it was actually an
Amdahl at the time, but last time I checked it was still
listed in the list of available languages, even though
they've since gone back to IBM's.) I would think versions
exist for other languages, but can't swear to it.


			- peterd

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+-------+ 	Peter Deutsch		McGill University
| u # u |	pet...@cs.mcgill.ca	School of Computer Science
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