User:Calebsmith0319/ABC (programming language)

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ABC is an imperative general-purpose programming language and integrated development environment (IDE) developed at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), in Amsterdam, Netherlands by Leo Geurts, Lambert Meertens, and Steven Pemberton.^[1] It is interactive, structured, high-level, and intended to be used instead of BASIC, Pascal, or AWK. It is intended for teaching or prototyping, but not as a systems-programming language.

Article body

Features

Its designers claim that ABC programs are typically around a quarter the size of the equivalent Pascal or C programs, and more readable.^[2] Key features include:

Only five basic data types
No required variable declarations
Explicit support for top-down programming
Statement nesting is indicated by indentation, via the off-side rule
Infinite precision arithmetic, unlimited-sized lists and strings, and other features supporting orthogonality and ease of use by novices
Polymorphic commands and functions
Interactive environment with command completion, persistent workspaces, and no separate file handling

ABC was originally a monolithic implementation, leading to an inability to adapt to new requirements, such as creating a graphical user interface (GUI). ABC could not directly access the underlying file system and operating system.

The full ABC system includes a programming environment with a structure editor (syntax-directed editor), suggestions, static variables (persistent), and multiple workspaces, and is available as an interpreter–compiler. As of 2020^[update], the latest version is 1.05.02, and it is ported to Unix, DOS, Atari, and Apple MacOS.

Implementations

ABC has been through multiple iterations, with the current version being the 4th major release. Implementations exist for Unix-like systems, MS-DOS/Windows, Macintosh, and other platforms. The source code was made available via Usenet in the late 1980s/early 1990s.

References

Pemberton, Steven (1991-01-02). "A short introduction to the ABC language". ACM SIGPLAN Notices. 26 (2): 11–16. doi:10.1145/122179.122180. ISSN 0362-1340. ^[3]

^ Pemberton, Steven (January 1987). "An Alternative Simple Language and Environment for PCs". IEEE Software. 4 (1): 56–64. doi:10.1109/MS.1987.229797. S2CID 12788361.
^ Pemberton, Steven (2012-02-22). "The ABC Programming Language: a short introduction". Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI). Amsterdam. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
^ Pemberton, Steven (1991-01-02). "A short introduction to the ABC language". ACM SIGPLAN Notices. 26 (2): 11–16. doi:10.1145/122179.122180. ISSN 0362-1340.

[1] Pemberton, Steven (January 1987). "An Alternative Simple Language and Environment for PCs". IEEE Software. 4 (1): 56–64. doi:10.1109/MS.1987.229797. S2CID 12788361.

[2] Pemberton, Steven (2012-02-22). "The ABC Programming Language: a short introduction". Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI). Amsterdam. Retrieved 2020-09-04.

[3] Pemberton, Steven (1991-01-02). "A short introduction to the ABC language". ACM SIGPLAN Notices. 26 (2): 11–16. doi:10.1145/122179.122180. ISSN 0362-1340.

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