boutell@freezer.it.udel.edu (Tom Boutell) (09/24/90)
I've been keeping an eye on this group out of rabid curiosity, but have yet to see an general information posting, so forgive the waste of bandwidth: what is icon? Is it a publicly available language? Does its name imply that it is a GUI- based language? I gathered this impression from a few ads seen long, LONG ago. i've seen mention of an MSDOS version, so I can't restrain my curiosity any longer. Please enlighten! -- What do you want from the fish of the fish that you fished when you fished for the fish that you fished? How many numchuks could Chuck chuck if Chuck could chuck numchuks? boutell@freezer.it.udel.edu? Or 27.598234821? Or not?
kwalker@CS.ARIZONA.EDU (Kenneth Walker) (09/24/90)
Date: 24 Sep 90 15:42:51 GMT
From: boutell@louie.udel.edu
I've been keeping an eye on this group out of rabid curiosity, but have
yet to see an general information posting, so forgive the waste of
bandwidth: what is icon? Is it a publicly available language? Does its
name imply that it is a GUI- based language? I gathered this impression
from a few ads seen long, LONG ago.
i've seen mention of an MSDOS version, so I can't restrain my curiosity
any longer. Please enlighten!
Icon is not a GUI-based language. The name Icon was affixed to the language
before the usage of the term icon to mean a pictograph became popular. It has
been a while since I posted my standard reply to the question "what is Icon",
so here it is.
Icon is a high level programming language designed for string processing
and other non-numeric applications (numeric processing can be done, but the
language and implementation are not tuned for it). Goal-directed evaluation
with control backtracking is an integral part of the language. However,
Icon is very different from other languages, such as Prolog, which use
this evaluation scheme. Icon has a rich set of control structures which
use and control backtracking. Most of these control structures look and
act very much like the control structures of more traditional languages,
allowing Pascal-like programming where the full power of goal-directed
evaluation is not required. Icon incorporates generators as a natural feature
within this goal-directed evaluation scheme.
Icon has a flexible run-time type system: variables may take on values of
any type and automatic type conversions are performed as needed by
operations. There are a variety of types including strings, sets, associative
tables, and lists with positional, queue, and stack access methods. All
storage management is automatic; garbage collection is performed as needed.
Icon is available for many system: Amiga, Atari, CMS, MS-DOS, MVS,
Macintosh, OS/2, most Unix systems, and VMS. All the versions that the
Icon Project distribute are in the public domain, except for MS-DOS/386
executables which use a commercial DOS extender (the regular MS-DOS
distribution is public domain). The Macintosh version we distribute runs
only under MPW. There is a commercial Mac version that runs stand-alone.
If you want information on obtaining Icon, let me know.
Ken Walker / Computer Science Dept / Univ of Arizona / Tucson, AZ 85721
+1 602 621-4324 kwalker@cs.arizona.edu {uunet|allegra|noao}!arizona!kwalkerzaft@nswses.navy.mil (Gordon C Zaft) (09/25/90)
In article <31372@nigel.ee.udel.edu> boutell@freezer.it.udel.edu (Tom Boutell) writes: >I've been keeping an eye on this group out of rabid curiosity, but have >yet to see an general information posting, so forgive the waste of >bandwidth: what is icon? Is it a publicly available language? Does its >name imply that it is a GUI- based language? I gathered this impression >from a few ads seen long, LONG ago. > >i've seen mention of an MSDOS version, so I can't restrain my curiosity >any longer. Please enlighten! Quoted from "The Icon Programming Language", by Griswold & Griswold. "Icon is a high-level, general-purpose programming language that contains many features for processing nonnumeric data, particularly for textual material consisting of strings of characters. Icon was designed to aid in analyzing natural languages, reformatting data, transforming computer programs, generating computer programs, manipulating formaulas, formatting documents, and so forth. IT is suited to situations where a quick solution is needed, one that can be obtained with a minimum of time and programming effort. Icon is extremely useful for 'one-shot' programs and for speculative efforts such as computer-generated poetry, in which a proposed problem solution is more heuristic than algorithmic." End quote. Icon is available for free, since it was written with support of the NSF. Icon was originally written by Ralph Griswold, and a cast of thousands at the University of Arizona (my alma mater!). Ralph Griswold, you may remember, was part of the team that developed SNOBOL. Ports of Icon are available for most Unix machines, as well as MS-DOS, VMS, and Macintosh (I believe the Macintosh version is not available from UA but is a commercial project). You can get more information by writing: Icon Project Department of Computer Science University of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85721 (602) 621-6613 (phone # is as of 1983 & may be different). I think you may also be able to anon. ftp stuff from UA, also, but I don't know the address. The definitive book is The Icon Programming Language Ralph E. Griswold & Madge T. Griswold, Prentice-Hall, 1983. ISBN 0-13-449777-5. I believe an updated book is on the way but I don't know if it's been released yet. The book describes version 5; the current release is version 8. Hope this answers your questions.A A A A A A -- + Gordon Zaft | zaft@suned1.nswses.navy.mil + + NSWSES, Code 4Y33 | suned1!zaft@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov + + Port Hueneme, CA 93043-5007 | Phone: (805) 982-0684 FAX: 982-8768 + ++++ Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.++++
nall@sun8.scri.fsu.edu (John Nall) (09/25/90)
In article <5472@suned1.Nswses.Navy.MIL> zaft@nswses.navy.mil (Gordon C Zaft) writes: >In article <31372@nigel.ee.udel.edu> boutell@freezer.it.udel.edu (Tom Boutell) writes: >>I've been keeping an eye on this group out of rabid curiosity, but have >>yet to see an general information posting, so forgive the waste of >>bandwidth: what is icon? Is it a publicly available language? Does its [more deleted...] > [lots of good info deleted, for brevity...] > > I think you may also be able to anon. ftp stuff from UA, >also, but I don't know the address. I picked up up with ftp several months ago. The address at that time was cs.arizona.edu [128.196.128.118] > > The definitive book is > > The Icon Programming Language > Ralph E. Griswold & Madge T. Griswold, Prentice-Hall, 1983. > ISBN 0-13-449777-5. > > I believe an updated book is on the way but I don't know if >it's been released yet. The book describes version 5; the current >release is version 8. The new book is same title, but Second Edition. Same publisher, 1990, ISBN 0-13-447889-4. Describes Version 8. > Hope this answers your questions.A Ditto for the additional answers. By the way, I think that I heard somewhere that Version 8 is NOT running under MS-DOS, but have not had that confirmed. Anyone know?? >-- >+ Gordon Zaft | zaft@suned1.nswses.navy.mil + >+ NSWSES, Code 4Y33 | suned1!zaft@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov + >+ Port Hueneme, CA 93043-5007 | Phone: (805) 982-0684 FAX: 982-8768 + > ++++ Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.++++ -- John W. Nall | Supercomputation Computations Research Institute nall@sun8.scri.fsu.edu | Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306 "Real programmers can write assembly code in any language." - Larry Wall
kwalker@CS.ARIZONA.EDU ("Kenneth Walker") (09/25/90)
Date: 24 Sep 90 19:33:18 GMT
From: mephisto!prism!sun13!sun8.scri.fsu.edu!nall@rutgers.edu
By the way, I think that I
heard somewhere that Version 8 is NOT running under MS-DOS, but have
not had that confirmed. Anyone know??
Version 8 of Icon does run under MS-DOS. However, it is recommended that
you have at least 500k of free RAM; Icon uses a lot of memory.
Ken Walker / Computer Science Dept / Univ of Arizona / Tucson, AZ 85721
+1 602 621-4324 kwalker@cs.arizona.edu {uunet|allegra|noao}!arizona!kwalker