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SPITBOL x32

SPITBOL x32 is an efficient implementation of the SNOBOL4 programming language for the 32-bit i386 architecture, using the Unix system and its derivatives, including Linux.

It is written in a portable assembly language called MINIMAL, with runtime support provided by code written in C.

Executable binary

A ready-to-run binary executable is provided as ./bin/spitbol.

Sample Program

Here is a simple SPITBOL calculator that reads each line from standard input, tries to evalute it, and writes the result to standard output. The code can be found in ./demos/calc.spt Note, for example, that 23+4 is a string, while 23 + 4 is an integer (27).

You can run it as follows:

	./bin/spitbol demos/calc.spt

*    A simple calculator in SPITBOL

*    Copyright 2015 David Shields

*    Read lines from standard input, evalute each as
*    an expression, and write the result and its datatype
*    to standard output.

    			:(loop)
error
*   Here if error, so print error message and continue
    output = 'failure evaluating'
    output = '**  '  line 
loop
    output = 'enter expression to evaluate:'
    line = input			:f(end)
    result = eval(line)		:f(error)
    output = result 
    output = datatype(result)	:(loop)
end

Documentation

Directory ./docs contains documentation:

  • The SNOBOL4 Programming Language, Griswold, et. al. ./docs/green-book.pdf

This is the classic introduction to SNOBOL4, known affectionately to SNOBOL enthusiasts as "The Green Book," due to its bright green cover.

  • SPITBOL User Manual, Emmer and Quillen ./docs/spitbol-manual.pdf

This is a comprehensive manual for SPITBOL, including many examples and tutorials.

  • Minimal Specification ./docs/spitbol-reference-manual.md

This document describes the portable assembly language used to implement SPITBOL.

Demonstration Programs

Demonstration programs from the SPITBOL User Manual can be found in ./demos

Building SPITBOL

To build spitbol (./sbl)

OSX:

	make osx
	make test_osx

Unix:

	make unix
	make test_unix

See readme.txt for instructions on interpreting the test output.

License

SPITBOL is licensed under the GPL (v2 or later) license. All code needed to build the system is included in this repository.