Re: Language documentation

[Guy Steele - Sun Microsystems Labs <address@hidden>]

   Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 17:03:48 -0500 (EST)
   From: Eli Collins <edc206@cs.nyu.edu>
   To: fare@tunes.org, <ll1-discuss@ai.mit.edu>
   Subject: Re: Language documentation
   
   
   You can add snobol to the list! Great file i/o as well. There are many
   text munging languages besides Perl :)
   
That was my first thought, actually, and thanks for
mentioning it.  But I checked my manual for SNOBOL3
and two for SNOBOL4, and none actually mentions
file I/O in the first five chapters, which was the
arbitrary criterion (one SNOBOL book does get to it
in Chapter 7).  That's why I had to go further afield
and finally hit on RPG, which is all about files.

I really miss SNOBOL.  It was superior to awk in some ways.

--Guy

   On Wed, 19 Feb 2003, Guy Steele - Sun Microsystems Labs wrote:
   
   >
   >    Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 14:08:22 +0100
   >    From: Francois-Rene Rideau <fare@tunes.org>
   >    To: ll1-discuss@ai.mit.edu
   >    Subject: Language documentation
   >    ...
   >
   >    I know of no other single language where text file munging is described
   >    in the first five chapters of the manual. ...
   >
   > Then you can't have looked very far.  I have checked
   > three different manuals and tutorials for RPG (the
   > Report Program Generator language) and all three are
   > well into text (well, EBCDIC) file munging by Chapter 4.
   > (Moreover, RPG has extensive support for expressing
   > monetary values in pounds, shillings, and pence as
   > well as US dollars.  What more could one ask for?)
   >
   > --Guy