Algorithms in Snobol 4

Viewed most generally, the book is a collection of algorithms with SNOBOL4 used as a communication vehicle. The algorithms are decidedly oriented toward the nonnumerical as this is SNOBOL4's forte and as such tend to supplement other published algorithms such as those appearing in the Communications of the ACM which, due to the reliance on Fortran and Algol, are primarily mathematical in nature. Because of its nonnumerical character, the book should be especially helpful to artisans in the humanities and in business applications as well as to the information scientists to whom the work is primarily addressed. The reader is assumed to know or be learning SNOBOL4 and if his knowledge in this respect is a little weak he should be willing to consult an appropriate manual or primer for reference. Little or no assumption is made with respect to his knowledge of other areas of computer science and mathematics.As a collection of SNOBOL4 algorithms, the book lends itself for direct use by the growing number of SNOBOL4 programmers who may use the programs as is, or modify them to suit their particular application. To further this end, virtually all programs are written as functions with a conscientiously applied naming system so that they can be simply 'plugged in' to existing programs without disturbing things. Hence another purpose is served, i.e., to foster and illustrate a technique of well-structured modular programming which is all too frequently lacking in many SNOBOL4 programs. There is currently great interest and for good reason in goto-less structured programs and while the control structures of SNOBOL4 prohibit adherence to the letter of this dictum, the examples in this book serve to carry out its spirit. Explains computer programming applications and techniques using SNOBOL4 algorithms