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     HOC(1)                                                     HOC(1)

     NAME
          hoc - interactive floating point language

     SYNOPSIS
          hoc [ -e expression ] [ file ... ]

     DESCRIPTION
          Hoc interprets a simple language for floating point arith-
          metic, at about the level of BASIC, with C-like syntax and
          functions.

          The named files are read and interpreted in order.  If no
          file is given or if file is `-' hoc interprets the standard
          input.  The -e option allows input to hoc to be specified on
          the command line, to be treated as if it appeared in a file.

          Hoc input consists of expressions and statements. Expres-
          sions are evaluated and their results printed.  Statements,
          typically assignments and function or procedure definitions,
          produce no output unless they explicitly call print.

          Variable names have the usual syntax, including `_'; the
          name `_' by itself contains the value of the last expression
          evaluated.  The variables E, PI, PHI, GAMMA and DEG are pre-
          defined; the last is 59.25..., degrees per radian.

          Expressions are formed with these C-like operators, listed
          by decreasing precedence.

          ^    exponentiation

          ! - ++ --

          * / %

          + -

          > >= < <= == !=

          &&

          ||

          = += -= *= /= %=

          Built in functions are abs, acos, asin, atan (one argument),
          cos, cosh, exp, int, log, log10, sin, sinh, sqrt, tan, and
          tanh.  The function read(x) reads a value into the variable
          x and returns 0 at EOF; the statement print prints a list of
          expressions that may include string constants such as

     HOC(1)                                                     HOC(1)

          "hello\n".

          Control flow statements are if-else, while, and for, with
          braces for grouping.  Newline ends a statement.  Backslash-
          newline is equivalent to a space.

          Functions and procedures are introduced by the words func
          and proc; return is used to return with a value from a func-
          tion.

     EXAMPLES
          func gcd(a, b) {
               temp = abs(a) % abs(b)
               if(temp == 0) return abs(b)
               return gcd(b, temp)
          }
          for(i=1; i<12; i++) print gcd(i,12)

     SOURCE
          /sys/src/cmd/hoc

     SEE ALSO
          bc(1), dc(1)
          B. W. Kernighan and R. Pike, The Unix Programming Environ-
          ment, Prentice-Hall, 1984

     BUGS
          Error recovery is imperfect within function and procedure
          definitions.