FWIW, it is my understanding that the Ada routines for pattern matching
implement a subset of full SNOBOL pattern matching capabilities, and even that
with rather clumsy syntax, and as a result are more likely to make people think
they have equivalent (and perhaps disappointing) capability when they in fact do
not... which might do more to KILL interest in SPITBOL than to enhance it. :-(

Mike Radow wrote:
> -
> _Thanks_ for the incisive comments, Mr. Aksjghkajshd! ?Are you _actually_
Scott Walters? No surprise if "yes"... ,,,and,,,:
>
> --- On Sat, 6/27/09, aksjghkajshd wrote: ...snipped...
> -
>> ...
>> http://pmichaud. com/2009/ pres/ has some good talks on getting
>> started with PGE, the Parrot Grammar Engine, and the other tools
>> for bootstrapping languages under Parrot. I have no doubt the
>> Parrot guys would be flattered by the interest. ...
> -
> I'll _support_ anything that makes life easier!
>
> The magnitude of projects like Parrot (and Mono and Portable, too) makes it
remarkable that a group of guys can get anything out the door: Most of them have
never met eyeball-to-eyeball.
> +
> Mono..........: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_(software)
> -
> Project.Net...: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable.NET
> +
> In structure, these projects are very different from, say, Linux, Apache, or
MySQL, which are highly centralized and hierarchical... So the "Parrot guys"
_deserve_ the flattery!
>
>
>> ...One school of thought expects Perl 5 will be automatically
>> converted to Perl 6 by a program running inside Perl 5;
>> another school expects the existing Perl 5 interpreter to be
>> embedded in a Parrot app; another possible end result is having
>> Perl 5, vaguely specified as it is, implemented as a language
>> under Parrot.
> -
> When early specs came out for Perl 6, several of us looked into using a
SNOBOL4 program to scan Perl 5 _source_, at least to scan for conflicts. This,
we reasoned, would be useful _even_if_ a complete conversion was not possible.
In many cases, tho' admittedly not all, it did look like a large portion of
programs _could_ be fully "automatically" converted. Of course, there are likely
numerous (pathological) cases which we missed. (My Dad used to call these
abusive "corner cases" with a special name: ''Sharp corner cases''.)
>
> The "automatic" conversion possibility brings me to your next point...:
>
>> I can't say which if any will ultimately happen, but please be
>> aware that there is currently no direct path to having access
>> to Perl 5's CPAN from Parrot. At least none that I'm aware of.
> -
> Agree, but CPAN modules are available as source. Conversion, either via "scan
and fix" -or- "automatically" would suffice, since the modified source would be
retained. Some modules might never be converted, but then some CPAN modules seem
to be rarely/never used, except by their donor...
>
> Since Perl 6 will be implemented for Parrot (?is this the correct
terminology?), there will be a natural _reuse_ of CPAN modules which were
converted by "regular" Perl 6 users, who have not interest nor contact with the
Parrot implementation. This would speed the availability of CPAN modules to
Parrot users, through no effort of their own.
>
> BTW: The "pugs" implementation is extremely clever. I'd have expected that the
Haskell-based implementation would run very slowly, but this is not the case. So
much, I guess, for the common wisdom that "functional languages are always
slow".
> +
> For the curious, please see...:
> +
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pugs
> &
> I first mistyped Pugs into Wikipedia, omitting the trailing "s" and thus
learned a lot about little dogs...
> &&
> MicroSoft's functional language "F#" (say "F sharp") is not speedy. A few
experiments were disappointing. I was only curious since it is an MS .NET
language and thus fully inter-operable with the other CLR / .NET languages.
> +
> If curious: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F_Sharp_programming_language
> &
> F# is quite similar to OCaml: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCaml
> +
> But OCaml is _not_ a .NET language.
> &&
> For a full list of .NET languages (a list similar to the earlier one I posted
for Parrot languages), please see the following URL. _However_, it's worth
noting that _only_a_few_ of these come from MicroSoft, e.g., VB.NET, C++.NET,
C#.NET, and F#.NET ... I may have forgotten a few.
> -+-
> Further, it may surprise some readers of the S4LS to read that Robert Dewar's
company, AdaCore, has a GNAT (=Gnu Nyu Ada Translator?) for .NET. It is GPL-ed
and there is information at...:
> +
> http://gnat-for-net-gpl-edition.software.informer.com/
> +
> This is of _particular_note_, since Robert wrote a SNOBOL4-like set of
pattern-matching routines for Ada. (These have since been translated to Java
and, I think, also to Phython. _Phil_B_: ?Right? Please correct me on this, if
reqd.:TIA!) These Ada routines seem to run fine on the GNAT.NET version, which
means that SNOBOL4-pattern matching is available to all .NET languages, with the
passing of suitable structures between the various .NET languages.
>
> Perhaps somebody will code a suitable wrapper for the Ada program which _only_
does S4-style pattern-matching, when called. This could be legally be freeware
and would make a great article for TechNet, etc.! It would
> also be boon to the entire .NET world, stuck as it is in the morass of
REGEX...
> +
> I hope that somebody who is familiar with VB/C++/C#.NET and SNOBOL4 and is
willing to learn a small amount of Ada will have the time to experiment with
this concept. As noted in my prior posting: _This_ is the kind of "marketing"
which could give SNOBOL4 (or at least its pattern-matcher) a great deal of
_visibility_!
>
> As mentioned above, here is (fairly current) list of .NET languages...:
> +
> http://www.dotnetpowered.com/languages.aspx <---<<
>
> - - - -
>
> Sorry to go on so long. In these (economic) days, I don't have much time for
more than infrequent reading of emails and postings, with almost no time to
write posts...
>
> I hope that something above is of interest / use to S4LS members.
>
> Mike
> -
> -
> -=[eot]=-


--

Gordon Peterson II
http://personal.terabites.com
1977-2007: Thirty year anniversary of local area networking