Decision tables for general-purpose scientific programming

Decision tables are shown, by example, to be a viable alternative to conventional algorithmic languages for general-purpose scientific programming.     

New techniques for COBOL programmers

Structured programming has become one of the most widely discussed topics among DP professionals. Despite this, however, COBOL programmers, responsible for the majority of ‘bread and butter jobs’, have been left mostly on their own. The article attempts to review the history of programming and list the areas essential for any future improvement and advancement of the programming profession, inclusive of systems analysis, education and training, and programming methodology. An alternative approach to structured programming in COBOL using decision tables is outlined and confronted with the concept of the so-called functional programming.     

PEP: An interactive programming system with an Algol-like programming language

PEP (Program Editor and Processor) is an interactive programming system based on an Algol-like language. It is intended to replace BASIC as a system for interactive program development on small computers (LSI-11). The language processed by the system allows declaration of variables, constants and procedures; it has structured statements for conditional and repetitive execution of program parts. We describe design and implementation of the system and give our impressions after 1 year of experience with the system.     

The consequences of one's first programming language

After seeing many programs written in one language, but with the style and structure of another, I conducted an informal survey to determine whether this phenomenon was widespread and to determine how much a programmer's first programming language might be responsible. This paper discusses my observations, gives informal results of the survey and suggests the need for a more formal study.     

Emerald: A general-purpose programming language

Emerald is a general-purpose language with aspects of traditional object-oriented languages, such as Smalltalk, and abstract data type languages, such as Modula-2 and Ada. It is strongly typed with a non-traditional object model and type system that emphasize abstract types, allow separation of typing and implementation, and provide the flexibility of polymorphism and subtyping with compile-time checking. This paper describes the Emerald language and its programming methodology. We give examples that demonstrate Emerald's features, and compare and contrast the Emerald approach to programming with the approaches used in other similar languages.     

The programming language superpascal

This paper defines SuperPascal—a secure programming language for publication of parallel scientific algorithms. SuperPascal extends a subset of IEEE Standard Pascal with deterministic statements for parallel processes and synchronous message communication. A parallel statement denotes parallel execution of a fixed number of statements. A forall statement denotes parallel execution of the same statement by a dynamic number of processes. Recursive procedures may be combined with parallel and forall statements to define recursive parallel processes. Parallel processes communicate by sending typed messages through channels created dynamically. SuperPascal omits ambiguous and insecure features of Pascal. Restrictions on the use of variables enable a single-pass compiler to check that parallel processes are disjoint, even if the processes use procedures with global variables.     

Joyce—A programming language for distributed systems

This paper describes a secure programming language called Joyce based on CSP and Pascal. Joyce permits unbounded (recursive) activation of communicating agents. The agents exchange messages through synchronous channels. A channel can transfer messages of different types between two or more agents. A compiler can check message types and ensure that agents use disjoint sets of variables only. The use of Joyce is illustrated by a variety of examples.     

Decision tables

Decision tables have been known for almost 20 years but there are still data processing shops where systems analysts and programmers have not used them at all. That is why it is felt important to re-open their case once again and publicize experience with their use, as well as more recent developments and expected future trends. It appears, from experience gained with decision tables over the past 10 years, that they can be of great help in programming, program maintenance, as well as in design communication between analysts and programmers. To assist also in training, a brief user's guide is included in this article, which is belived to make the first attempts to easier design of a decision table. Finally, the procedure adopted to implement a machine independent (portable) decision-table preprocessor for COBOL is outlined. In as much as the availability of such a preprocessor appears essential for the degree of use of decision tables, this single fact may well become a milestone in the overall popularity of decision tables world-wide.     

A comparison of programming languages for software engineering

Four programming languages (Fortran, Cobol, Jovial and the proposed DoD standard) are compared in the light of modern ideas of good software engineering practice. The comparison begins by identifying a core for each language that captures the essential properties of the language and the intent of the language designers. These core languages then serve as a basis for the discussion of the language philosophies and the impact of the language on gross program organization and on the use of individual statements.     

Fooling the user of a programming language

Fooling the user' of a programming language by ‘natural’ constructions can cause completely unpredictable reliability defects in software systems. Numerous examples show the extent of the problem. Two methods of overcoming it are presented: simple languages devoid of user-fooling powers, and explication languages to accompany the more powerful languages.     

Design of an arabic programming language (ARABLAN)

It was observed that school children in Arab countries find difficulty in learning programming in a language other than their native language. There are only few Arabic programming languages in the literature; most of which are never or partially implemented. In this paper, we present the design of a new Arabic programming language (ARABLAN) which is planned to be implemented for use in teaching programming for school children in Arab countries.     

The programming language standards scene, ten years on Paper 13: Prolog

This paper, one of a simultaneously published set, describes the establishment in 1984 of the standards project for the programming language Prolog, and subsequent progress of the project, which at the end of 1993 is almost complete. This brief overview of the forthcoming standard concentrates on issues of general interest: for example, concepts such as unification and a user-defined syntax are being standardized for the first time. Their definitions can and should be re-used in the standard for any other language which includes these concepts.     

Fibonacci: A programming language for object databases

Fibonacci is an object-oriented database programming language characterized by static and strong typing, and by new mechanisms for modeling data-bases in terms of objects with roles, classes, and associations. A brief introduction to the language is provided to present those features, which are particularly suited to modeling complex databases. Examples of the use of Fibonacci are given with reference to the prototype implementation of the language.     

PIGS—A system for programming with interactive graphical support

This paper describes an implementation of a system for programming using structured charts with interactive graphical support. It provides a graphical editor for the user to interactively build and edit programs using Nassi-Shneiderman diagrams (NSD)¹ as the structured control constructs of logic flow. It can interpret a program in NSD chart form, and the execution sequence of the NSD is displayed at a graphical terminal. On-line debugging and testing facilities are available which allow the user to examine and modify the program under execution. The system has been designed with the aim of supporting the development, debugging, testing, documentation and maintenance of programs in the same environment.     

A programming language for learning environments

Most of the recent research on programming languages for education has been centered around the language Logo. In this paper we introduce another candidate language for learning environments, Nial, the nested interactive array language.
Nial is a general-purpose programming language based on a formal theory of mathematics called array theory. This paper introduces Nial as a language for learning programming and developing and using computer-aided instruction tools. A comparison with Logo is provided to evaluate these two languages in terms of their strengths and weaknesses as programming environments for novice programmers. We also demonstrate that a programming environment can be both simple to leam at the novice level and extendible to a powerful and sophisticated language.     

ADA: A language for robot programming?

Robot programming languages are emerging from their experimental stage and entering an assessment phase. Their main features are illustrated and a parallel with ADA is proposed. The comparison is positive for ADA, in the sense that ADA provides most of the required capabilities. The ability of reasoning on object models and taking decisions will play an increasing role in the future. In this case the role of ADA would possibly change and its interest as robot programming language decrease.     

Biomac: Block structured programming using PDP-11 assembler language

Users of small computers must often program in assembler language. Macros are described which assist in the construction of block structured programs in assembler language. The macros are used in practical day-to-day programming in a cardiac electrophysiology laboratory in which the coarse grained control provided by the local FORTRAN compiler is not sufficient for, and even hinders, the writing of clear, easy to understand programs. The macros provide nestable control structures in place of the less structured transfers of conventional assembler language. The arithmetic and input/output control provided by the architecture of the machine is left fully available. The control structures implemented include conditional (IF, CASE), iteration (WHILE, REPEAT/UNTIL, FOR) and subroutine (PROC, CALL, etc.) constructs. No control of variable scope is provided. The macro implementation is discussed along with the code generated. There is a discussion of architectural features which allow the macros to be independent of specific register usage and addressing mode. Experience with use of the macros in a high-speed, real-time data acquisition and display environment is presented. We conclude that these macros are easy to use and assist in program readability and documentation.     

Supporting the structured development of complex PL/I software systems

The methodology of top-down (structured) programming has emerged in the last few years as a practical approach to the problem of developing reliable software systems. The methodology, however, places certain demands on the language used for actual system implementation. In this paper we discuss the implications of these demands on a specific language, PL/I. From this discussion the basic objectives of a PL/I support system are deduced. These objectives deal primarily with: (1) specifying intermodule relationships; (2) propagating module modifications; and (3) maintaining consistency in the realization of abstractions. Finally, the essential elements of a system that realizes these objectives are described.