Re: [TUHS] History of m6?

[Bakul Shah <bakul@bitblocks.com>]

On Sun, 17 Nov 2019 18:23:05 +0000 Michael =?utf-8?B?S2rDtnJsaW5n?= <michael@kjorling.se> wrote:
Michael Kjörling writes:
> On 17 Nov 2019 10:12 -0800, from bakul@bitblocks.com (Bakul Shah):
> > What I really want is a programming language with support for
> > symbolic manipulation of formulas!
>
> Do you mean something like HAL/S?
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAL/S#Syntax
>
> Though quite frankly, at a glance that multi-line syntax looks
> somewhat awkward for little benefit over a single-line format,
> especially if the code is already annotated (as certainly I would
> expect for in-flight avionics software, never mind aboard a
> spacecraft).

Syntax is a separate issue.  Something like what Macsyma (or
Maxima now) or even LaTeX would be fine. Many word processors
and browsers can render the latter properly. Syntax is the
easy part (though it can be controversial).  The hard part is
having to build in a tremendous amount of math knowledge. Even
if the compiler/interpreter were to outsource the symbolic
algebra manipulation part to maxima, mathematica or some such,
smooth integration with other language features would not be easy.