Wolfgang Strobl wrote: > Steve Holden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > >> I'm happy you are proceeding with so little trouble. Without wishing to >> confuse you, however, I should point out that this aspect of Python has >> very little to do with its object-orientation. There was a language >> called Icon, for example, 20 years ago, that used similar semantics but >> wasn't at all object-oriented. > > Actually, there was a language called SNOBOL, 40 years ago, that used > similar semantics, developed by Griswold et al. Its object model was > remarkably similar to that of Python without classes. And it even had > dictionaries (called "tables") :-). > > For an explaination of the concept "variable" in SNOBOL see > <http://www.cacs.louisiana.edu/~mgr/404/burks/language/snobol/catspaw/tutorial/ch1.htm#1.3> > > SNOBOLs powerfull patterns still shine, compared to Pythons clumsy > regular expressions. I've used the language a lot in the past, first on > the mainframe (SPITBOL on System/360), later on the PC (Catspaws SNOBOL4 > &SPITBOL). When I switched to Python, it wasn't because of the > expressiveness of the language, but of the rich library ("batteries > included") and the IMO elegant syntax, i.e. blocks by identation. > > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNOBOL> > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_E._Griswold> > > Icon came later. Griswold developed Icon as a successor to SNOBOL, > constructing it around the concept of generators and co-expressions. I > didn't like it. > > I liked Icon quite a lot, despite having a large background in SNOBOL (my undergrad final-year project was porting the SPITBOL implementation to the DECSystem-10). I wrote email parsing software in Icon long before anyone was doing it in Python.
It took a little bit more careful planning to get Icon pattern-matching structures right, but there was much more explicit control of backtracking. I only wish they'd grafted more OO concepts into it, then I might never have bothered with Python! Someone did do an OO system layered on top of it, but IIRC it was clumsy and rebarbative. regards Steve -- Steve Holden +1 571 484 6266 +1 800 494 3119 Holden Web LLC/Ltd http://www.holdenweb.com Skype: holdenweb http://del.icio.us/steve.holden --------------- Asciimercial ------------------ Get on the web: Blog, lens and tag the Internet Many services currently offer free registration ----------- Thank You for Reading ------------- -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list