SPITBOL is an extremely high performance implementation of the SNOBOL4 language that brings raw power and speed to non-numeric computation.
SPITBOL V4.0 is currently only available for 64-bit x86_64 processors running Unix.
The latest version of SPITBOL V4.0 can be found at github.com/spitbol/x64.
Address comments, suggestions, and bug reports to spitbol@fastmail.com.
Version 4.0 differs from previous versions of SPITBOL as follows:
-
The initial value of &ANCHOR is one, not null as in prior versions.
-
The initial value of &TERM is one, not null as in prior versions.
-
The initial value of &CASE is zero, not one as in prior versions.
The manual has always suggested setting &ANCHOR and &TERM to non-null values for more efficient searching.
Prior versions also folded cases by default, so that variables differing only in case, such as 'Var' and 'VAR' were treated as the same variable. Though this may have made sense when lower case terminals and printers were just coming into use, those days are long gone.
The SAVE function doesn't work. (This loss of function occurred whilst adding 64-bit support). Note that SAVE mode was mainly of interest back in the day when Spitbol was proprietary, so that one could distribute a program written in Spitbol without having to disclose the source.
Load modules are not supported.
Loading of external functions is not supported.
If you just want to use SPITBOL without building it, the file ./bin/spitbol
contains a statically-linked copy of the 64-bit version of spitbol.
You can install it in /usr/local/bin/spitbol with the command:
$ sudo make install
Three tools are needed to build Spitbol:
- A C compiler
- A C runtime library
- An assembler
SPITBOL uses the gcc compiler to compile C source files.
SPITBOL uses musl for the runtime support.
The command musl-gcc must be used instead of gcc to link to the musl library and include files.
SPITBOL requires NASM, the Netwide ASseMbler: nasm to assemble the generated x86_64 machine code.
You should be able to build SPITBOL on most Unix systems.
The file ./bin/spitbol is the base version of Spitbol that is used to build the system.
To see if spitbol is working, try the "hello world" program:
$ ./bin/spitbol test/hello.sbl
To build the system:
$ make clean
$ make
This should produce the file ./spitbol. You can test it with the "hello world"
program:
$ ./spitbol test/hello.sbl
To test the system more comprehensively, do:
$ ./test/sanity-test
This shell script should be run after bulding the system. Since part of the SPITBOL translator is written in SPITBOL, it is essential to make sure that a new build of SPITBOL is able to build the system. The test uses successive versions to build the system three times; first to see if the new version runs, second to see the results of using it to build the system, and finally building the system again to see that none of the essential files were changed.
Three builds are needed, since it possible the new version contains an optimization or other code change whose effects will only be tested in the final build.
Additional test programs can be found in the directory ./bin.
NEVER replace the file ./bin/spitbol with a newly built spitbol without first running and checking the results of
running the sanity test. There's a good reason it has that name.
Use the command below to install spitbol in /usr/local/bin.
$ make install
The SPITBOL implementation includes the following files:
The principal source file is s.min. The file s.cnd contains the definition of conditional assembly options.
lex.sbl is the first state of compilation. It converts the source file into a sequence of lexical tokens.
The lexcal scan is followed by running asm.sbl to translate the tokens into machine code for the target machine.
The program err.sbl is used to produce a compact representation of the error messages contained in the Minimal source.
./bin/spitbol is the statically linked binary for SPITBOL. You should be able to run in on any 64-bit x86_64 processor
using Unix.
The directory osint contains the source files written in C99 that provide an interface to the Unix
environment.
The files x64.h, x64.hdr, and x64.s contain that part of the runtime that cannot be expressed in C and
so is written in assembler.
The file z.sbl can be used to insert trace code in generated assembly for debugging. This is not required to
build this system, and was last used in 2009 as part of the port of SPITBOL to Linux.
Some demonstration programs can be found in the directory ./demos.
The ./docs directory contains:
The SNOBOL4 Programming Language by R. E. Griswold, J. F. Poage and I. P. Polonski.
This is the classic "Green Book" (because of the cover of its color). It is a marvel of typography, and first introduced the use of "beads" to explain SNOBOL pattern matching.
MACRO SPITBOL: The High-Performance SNOBOL4 Language by Mark Emmer and Edward Quillen.
The SPITBOL project notes with sadness the death of Ed Quillen in June, 2012. To quote from Mark Emmer's Acknowledgments in the SPITBOL Manual:
Ed Quillen, local novelist, political columnist, and SNOBOL enthusiast, co- authored this manual. He combined various terse SPITBOL documents from other systems with Catspaw's SNOBOL4+ manual, while providing more complete explanations of some concepts. Any observed clarity is this manual is due to Ed, while the more opaque portions can be blamed on me.
You can learn more about Ed at Ed's web site and [ Denver Post columnist Ed Quillen dies at age 61 in his Salida home](http://www.denverpost.com/obituaries/ci_20781716/denver-post-columnist- ed-quillen-dies-at-age).
v37.min is the source file for SPITBOL v3.7. It is the state of SPITBOL as of 2009 when
Dave Shields took over the maintainer role. The actual code in the current system is
very close to v3.7. The main difference is that the change history has been deleted, and
the MINIMAL specification formerly in this document can now be found in the file minimal.md
minimal.md contains the specification of the MINIMAL language, based on the text in v37.min.
SPITBOL is licensed using the GPLv2 (or later) license.
COPYING contains a copy of the GPLv2 license.
COPYING-SAVE-FILE describes licensing issues for a SPITBOL "save file."
COPYING-LOAD-MODULES describes licensing issues for a SPITBOL "load module."
Mark Emmer's SNOBOL4 site: snobol4.com
Phil Bunde's SNOBOL site: snobol4.org