SPITBOL(1) SPITBOL(1)
NAME
spitbol - Snobol language compiler
SYNOPSIS
spitbol [ options ] ifile ...
DESCRIPTION
Spitbol is an upward compatible dialect of SNOBOL4.
All names used in a program are normally mapped to UPPER
CASE during compilation and execution. For strict compati-
bility with SNOBOL4, use the -f option or -CASE control
statement.
All ifiles are read in order before the standard input.
Standard output comes only from assignments to OUTPUT and
from error messages.
Compiler options:
-f don't fold lower case names to UPPER CASE
-e don't send error messages to the terminal
-l generate source listing
-c generate compilation statistics
-x generate execution statistics
-a like -lcx
-p long listing format; generates form feeds
-z use standard listing format
-h write spitbol header to standard output
-n suppress execution
-mdd max size (words) of created object (default 8192)
-sdd maximum size (words) of stack space (default
2048)
-idd size (words) of increment by which dynamic area
is increased (default 4096)
-ddd size (words) of maximum allocated dynamic area
(default 256K)
SPITBOL(1) SPITBOL(1)
-u string executing program may retrieve string with
HOST(0)
-o ofile write listing, statistics and dump to ofile and
OUTPUT to standard output
Note: dd can be followed by a k to indicate units of 1024.
Spitbol has two input-output modes, line mode, where records
are delimited by new-line characters, and raw mode where a
predetermined number of bytes is transferred. Modes are
specified in INPUT or OUTPUT function calls. The maximum
length of an input record is set by the -l or -r argument.
The form of the INPUT/OUTPUT function call is
INPUT/OUTPUT(.name,channel,file_name args)
where name is the variable name to be input/output associ-
ated and channel is an integer or string that identifies the
association to be used in subsequent calls for EJECT, END-
FILE, INPUT, OUTPUT, REWIND, and SET. If the channel is
omitted or the null string, the association is made to the
system's standard input or output stream. file_name args
specifies the source/destination of the input/output and any
IO processing arguments. The file_name can be either a path
name to a file or a command string. Command strings are dis-
tinguished from file names by a leading "!". The character
following the "!" is the delimiter used to separate the com-
mand string from any IO processing arguments. The ending
delimiter may be omitted if there are no IO processing argu-
ments. There must always be at least one space between the
file_name and args, even if the file_name is null.
Input/output arguments are:
-a Append output to existing file. If file doesn't exist
then it is created. If -a is not specified then file
is created.
-bdd Set internal buffer size to dd characters. This value
is the byte count used on all input/output transfers
except for the last write to an output file (default
1024).
-c Like -r1
-fdd Use dd as file desciptor for IO. spitbol assumes that
dd has been opened by the shell. File names and -fdd
arguments are mutually exclusive. File descriptors 0,
1, and 2 may be accessed in this manner.
-ldd Line mode: maximum input record length is dd characters
SPITBOL(1) SPITBOL(1)
(default 1024).
-rdd Raw mode: input record length is dd characters.
-w On output, each record is directly written to the file
without any intermediate buffering (default for termi-
nals). On input, each input operation uses exactly one
read(2), and fails if read returns 0.
More than one type of transfer may be associated with a
channel. This is accomplished by calling INPUT/OUTPUT after
the initial call with the name, channel, and file arguments.
The file name or -f argument must not be specified on calls
subsequent to the first.
Standard functions: SET(channel,integer,integer) The argu-
ments are same as those to the lseek(2), escept that the
first argument identifies a spitbol channel instead of a
file descriptor.
EXIT(command-string)
causes the value of command-string to be handed to the
Shell to be executed after spitbol terminates.
EXIT(n)
If n is greater than 0, a load module will be written
in a.out before termination. Executing this load mod-
ule will restore the state of the spitbol system to
what it was when EXIT was called, except that any files
other than the standard input, output, and error will
have been closed. To the SNOBOL4 program, it will
appear as if EXIT had returned a null string. If n is
exactly 1, the generated load module will identify the
version of spitbol that created it in a message when it
begins execution. If n is greater than 1, it will
resume quietly.
HOST()
returns the host string read from /usr/lib/spithost.
HOST(0)
returns the string specified with the -u option on the
command line. If -u was not specified the null string
is returned.
HOST(1,"command string")
executes the command string and continues.
HOST(2,n)
returns argument number n from the command line. It
fails if n is out of range or not an integer.
SPITBOL(1) SPITBOL(1)
HOST(3)
returns the index of the first command line argument
that was not examined by spitbol.
HOST(4,"var")
returns the value of the environment variable var. If
the value is too long for an internal buffer (presently
512 bytes) it is quietly truncated.
MISCELLANY
A file is not actually opened until the first attempt to
read, write, SET, or REWIND it.
Folding of names to UPPER CASE can be controlled during com-
pilation by the -CASE control statement and during execution
by the &CASE keyword. A value of 0 prevents folding to
UPPER CASE and a value of 1 forces folding to UPPER CASE.
Integers are represented by 32-bit quantities. Real numbers
are implemented in single precision.
Setting &STLIMIT = -1 inhibits statement limit checking and
provides a way to execute arbitrarily many statements.
The name TERMINAL is available with default associations for
input and output to the terminal.
If the first line of the first input file begins with #!
then that line is ignored. This meshes with the way that
exec(2) treats files beginning with #!.
Setting &PROFILE = 1 causes spitbol to accumulate profile
information during program execution and print this informa-
tion after the program terminates.
FILES
/usr/lib/vaxspitv35.err - Error text.
/usr/lib/spithost - Host computer and operating system iden-
tifier.
SEE ALSO
Macro SPITBOL Program Reference Manual by R. B. K. Dewar, A.
P. McCann, R. E. Goldberg, and Steven G. Duff
The SNOBOL4 Programming Language, Second Edition by R. E.
Griswold, J. F. Poage and I. P. Polonsky
sno(1), snocone(1)