term% cat index.txt SPITBOL(1) General Commands Manual SPITBOL(1)
NAME
spitbol - Snobol language compiler
SYNOPSIS
spitbol [ options ] ifile ...
DESCRIPTION
Spitbol is an upward compatible dialect of SNOBOL4.
All names used in a program are normally mapped to UPPER CASE during
compilation and execution. For strict compatibility with SNOBOL4, use
the -f option or -CASE control statement.
All ifiles are read in order before the standard input. Standard out‐
put comes only from assignments to OUTPUT and from error messages.
Compiler options:
-f don't fold lower case names to UPPER CASE
-e don't send error messages to the terminal
-l generate source listing
-c generate compilation statistics
-x generate execution statistics
-a like -lcx
-p long listing format; generates form feeds
-z use standard listing format
-h write spitbol header to standard output
-n suppress execution
-mdd max size (words) of created object (default 8192)
-sdd maximum size (words) of stack space (default 2048)
-idd size (words) of increment by which dynamic area is increased
(default 4096)
-ddd size (words) of maximum allocated dynamic area (default
256K)
-u string executing program may retrieve string with HOST(0)
-o ofile write listing, statistics and dump to ofile and OUTPUT to
standard output
Note: dd can be followed by a k to indicate units of 1024.
Spitbol has two input-output modes, line mode, where records are delim‐
ited by new-line characters, and raw mode where a predetermined number
of bytes is transferred. Modes are specified in INPUT or OUTPUT func‐
tion calls. The maximum length of an input record is set by the -l or
-r argument. The form of the INPUT/OUTPUT function call is
INPUT/OUTPUT(.name,channel,file_name args)
where name is the variable name to be input/output associated and chan‐
nel is an integer or string that identifies the association to be used
in subsequent calls for EJECT, ENDFILE, INPUT, OUTPUT, REWIND, and SET.
If the channel is omitted or the null string, the association is made
to the system's standard input or output stream. file_name args speci‐
fies the source/destination of the input/output and any IO processing
arguments. The file_name can be either a path name to a file or a com‐
mand string. Command strings are distinguished from file names by a
leading "!". The character following the "!" is the delimiter used to
separate the command string from any IO processing arguments. The end‐
ing delimiter may be omitted if there are no IO processing arguments.
There must always be at least one space between the file_name and args,
even if the file_name is null.
Input/output arguments are:
-a Append output to existing file. If file doesn't exist then it is
created. If -a is not specified then file is created.
-bdd Set internal buffer size to dd characters. This value is the
byte count used on all input/output transfers except for the
last write to an output file (default 1024).
-c Like -r1
-fdd Use dd as file desciptor for IO. spitbol assumes that dd has
been opened by the shell. File names and -fdd arguments are mu‐
tually exclusive. File descriptors 0, 1, and 2 may be accessed
in this manner.
-ldd Line mode: maximum input record length is dd characters (default
1024).
-rdd Raw mode: input record length is dd characters.
-w On output, each record is directly written to the file without
any intermediate buffering (default for terminals). On input,
each input operation uses exactly one read(2), and fails if read
returns 0.
More than one type of transfer may be associated with a channel. This
is accomplished by calling INPUT/OUTPUT after the initial call with the
name, channel, and file arguments. The file name or -f argument must
not be specified on calls subsequent to the first.
Standard functions: SET(channel,integer,integer) The arguments are same
as those to the lseek(2), escept that the first argument identifies a
spitbol channel instead of a file descriptor.
EXIT(command-string)
causes the value of command-string to be handed to the Shell to
be executed after spitbol terminates.
EXIT(n)
If n is greater than 0, a load module will be written in a.out
before termination. Executing this load module will restore the
state of the spitbol system to what it was when EXIT was called,
except that any files other than the standard input, output, and
error will have been closed. To the SNOBOL4 program, it will
appear as if EXIT had returned a null string. If n is exactly
1, the generated load module will identify the version of spit‐
bol that created it in a message when it begins execution. If n
is greater than 1, it will resume quietly.
HOST() returns the host string read from /usr/lib/spithost.
HOST(0)
returns the string specified with the -u option on the command
line. If -u was not specified the null string is returned.
HOST(1,"command string")
executes the command string and continues.
HOST(2,n)
returns argument number n from the command line. It fails if n
is out of range or not an integer.
HOST(3)
returns the index of the first command line argument that was
not examined by spitbol.
HOST(4,"var")
returns the value of the environment variable var. If the value
is too long for an internal buffer (presently 512 bytes) it is
quietly truncated.
MISCELLANY
A file is not actually opened until the first attempt to read, write,
SET, or REWIND it.
Folding of names to UPPER CASE can be controlled during compilation by
the -CASE control statement and during execution by the &CASE keyword.
A value of 0 prevents folding to UPPER CASE and a value of 1 forces
folding to UPPER CASE.
Integers are represented by 32-bit quantities. Real numbers are imple‐
mented in single precision.
Setting &STLIMIT = -1 inhibits statement limit checking and provides a
way to execute arbitrarily many statements.
The name TERMINAL is available with default associations for input and
output to the terminal.
If the first line of the first input file begins with #! then that
line is ignored. This meshes with the way that exec(2) treats files
beginning with #!.
Setting &PROFILE = 1 causes spitbol to accumulate profile information
during program execution and print this information after the program
terminates.
FILES
/usr/lib/vaxspitv35.err - Error text.
/usr/lib/spithost - Host computer and operating system identifier.
SEE ALSO
Macro SPITBOL Program Reference Manual by R. B. K. Dewar, A. P. McCann,
R. E. Goldberg, and Steven G. Duff
The SNOBOL4 Programming Language, Second Edition by R. E. Griswold, J.
F. Poage and I. P. Polonsky
sno(1), snocone(1)
SPITBOL(1)