SURVEY OF COMPUTER LANGUAGES FOR SYMBOLIC AND ALGEBRAIC MANIPULATIONS.
Abstract
This report is a preprint of a paper summarizing a study conducted by the Comparison of Languages Subcommittee of the ACM Special Interest Committee on Symbolic and Algebraic Manipulation (SICSAM) on 18 computer languages for symbolic and algebraic manipulation that met certain criteria of relevance and availability: ALTRAN, AMBIT, COGENT, COMIT, CONVERT, CORAL, DYSTAL, FLIP, FORMAC, FORMULA ALGOL, IPL-V, LISP1.5, LISP2, L6, PANON, SLIP, SNOBOL, and TRAC. Several other languages are also briefly discussed. For each of six groups into which the languages are classified, the paper (a) describes properties that members of the group have in common, (b) gives a brief description of each language in the group, including an excerpt from a program in the language that demonstrates the kind of problem for which the language is well suited; and (c) briefly compares the features of the languages in the group. The paper contains three appendices: (1) a reference chart that summarizes the features of all of the languages; (2) a comparison chart that emphasizes the salient distinctions between selected pairs of similar languages; and (3) a set of annotated examples of programs in various languages that solve similar problems, thus illustrating the differences in data representations, program forms, and notations. The paper is a cooperative effort of a board of consultants, including experts in each of the languages, who contributed data and reviewed the draft.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1967
- Accession Number
- AD0649401
Entities
People
- Bertram Raphael
Organizations
- SRI International