ABC
1. <computer>
Atanasoff-Berry Computer.
2. <language> An imperative language and programming environment from
CWI, Netherlands.
It is interactive, structured, high-level, and easy to learn and use.
It is a general-purpose language which you might use instead of
BASIC,
Pascal or
AWK.
It is not a systems-programming language but is good for teaching or prototyping.
ABC has only five data types that can easily be combined;
strong typing, yet without declarations; data limited only by memory; refinements to support top-down programming; nesting by indentation.
Programs are typically around a quarter the size of the equivalent
Pascal or
C program, and more readable.
ABC includes a programming environment with syntax-directed editing, suggestions, persistent variables and multiple workspaces and infinite precision arithmetic.
An example function words to collect the set of all words in a document:
HOW TO RETURN words document: PUT
IN collection FOR line in document: FOR word IN split line: IF word not.in collection: INSERT word IN collection RETURN collection
Interpreter/
compiler, version 1.04.01, by Leo Geurts, Lambert Meertens, Steven Pemberton <
[email protected]>. ABC has been ported to
Unix,
MS-DOS,
Atari,
Macintosh.
Home (http://www.cwi.nl/cwi/projects/abc.html).
FTP eu.net (ftp://ftp.eu.net/programming/languages/abc), FTP nluug.nl (ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/programming/languages/abc), FTP uunet (ftp://ftp.uu.net/languages/abc).
Mailing list: <
[email protected]>.
E-mail: <
[email protected]>.
["The ABC Programmer's Handbook" by Leo Geurts, Lambert Meertens and Steven Pemberton, published by Prentice-Hall (ISBN 0-13-000027-2)].
["An Alternative Simple Language and Environment for PCs" by Steven Pemberton, IEEE Software, Vol. 4, No. 1, January 1987, pp. 56-64.]
(1995-02-09)
2. <language> Argument, Basic value, C?.
An
abstract machine for implementation of functional languages and its intermediate code.
[P. Koopman, "Functional Programs as Executable Specifications", 1990].
