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 <Steven.Pemberton@cwi.nl>. ABC has been ported to Unix, MS-DOS, Atari, Macintosh.
http://cwi.nl/cwi/projects/abc.html.
FTP eu.net, FTP nluug.nl, FTP uunet.
Mailing list: <abc-list-request@cwi.nl>.
E-mail: <abc@cwi.nl>.
["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.]
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].