1. An imperative language and programming environment from CWI, Netherlands. It is interactive, structured, high-level, and easy to learn and use. It is a general-purpose language which you might use instead of BASIC, Pascal or AWK. It is not a systems-programming language but is good for teaching or prototyping. ABC has only five data types that can easily be combined; strong typing, yet without declarations; data limited only by memory; refinements to support top-down programming; nesting by indentation. Programs are typically around a quarter the size of the equivalent Pascal or C program, and more readable. ABC includes a programming environment with syntax-directed editing, suggestions, persistent variables and multiple workspaces and infinite precision arithmetic. An example function words to collect the set of all words in a document: HOW TO RETURN words document:
PUT IN collection
FOR line in document:
FOR word IN split line:
IF word not.in collection:
INSERT word IN collection
RETURN collectionInterpreter/compiler, version 1.04.01, by Leo Geurts, Lambert Meertens, Steven Pemberton <[email protected]>. ABC has been ported to Unix, MS-DOS, Atari, Macintosh. Home FTP eu.net, FTP nluug.nl, FTP uunet. Mailing list: <[email protected]>. E-mail: <[email protected]>. ["The ABC Programmer's Handbook" by Leo Geurts, Lambert Meertens and Steven Pemberton, published by Prentice-Hall (ISBN 0-13-000027-2)]. ["An Alternative Simple Language and Environment for PCs" by Steven Pemberton, IEEE Software, Vol. 4, No. 1, January 1987, pp. 56-64.] 2. Argument, Basic value, C?. An abstract machine for implementation of functional languages and its intermediate code. [P. Koopman, "Functional Programs as Executable Specifications", 1990]. | 
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