phyllis@utcsrgv.UUCP (Phyllis Eve Bregman) (02/21/84)
ANNOUNCING THE TURING LANGUAGE COMPILER
Believing that a programming language should be easy to
teach and simple to use, yet capable of performing complex
calculations, R.C. Holt, J.R. Cordy and J.N.P. Hume of the
University of Toronto have created the new computer
language--TURING, which we are now distributing.
The Turing language is a general purpose programming
language that is well suited for teaching programming, and,
in fact, it has been class-tested by over 3000 students at
the University of Toronto since the summer of 1983.
Turing is a Pascal-like language that incorporates almost
all of Pascal's features, however, it alleviates many of the
difficulties with Pascal. For example, Turing provides con-
venient string handling; it provides modules; its variant
records are type safe and it has dynamic parameters and
arrays.
Turing has a simple, unwordy syntax, allowing concentration
on what is being programmed rather than on language details.
As a result, although Turing is a more general language than
Pascal, its basic features have an expressiveness that is
characteristic of more modest languages such as Basic and
Logo. Turing has been formally specified and is designed to
support formal verification of program correctness. Its
design has eliminated verification and security difficulties
of Pascal-like languages without adding inefficiency.
The Turing language has been implemented by a portable
user-friendly compiler on the Vax, the IBM370 and (soon) on
various microprocessors such as the MC68000, NS16000. Tur-
ing for the 8086 running MS-DOS will be available for dis-
tribution in the spring.
For a more complete description of the language, see Turing
Language Report by Richard C. Holt and James R. Cordy (CSRG
Technical Report No. 153), available from me, and the book
by R.C. Holt and J.N.P. Hume, Introduction to Computer Sci-
ence using the TURING Programming Language (Reston Publish-
ing Co., 1984, (703) 437 8900).
Distribution information for Turing can be obtained by
sending me your "hardcopy" mailing address.
--
Phyllis Eve Bregman
CSRG, Univ. of Toronto
{decvax,linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,allegra,utzoo}!utcsrgv!phyllis
CSNET: phyllis@toronto
(416) 978 6985