Report Number: CS-TR-73-373
Institution: Stanford University, Department of Computer Science
Title: SAIL user manual.
Author: VanLehn, Kurt A.
Date: July 1973
Abstract: SAIL is a high-level programming language for the PDP-10
computer. It includes an extended ALGOL 60 compiler and a
companion set of execution-time routines. In addition to
ALGOL, the language features: (1) flexible linking to
hand-coded machine language algorithms, (2) complete access
to the PDP-10 I/O facilities, (3) a complete system of
compile-time arithmetic and logic as well as a flexible macro
system, (4) user modifiable error handling, (5) backtracking,
and (6) interrupt facilities. Furthermore, a subset of the
SAIL language, called LEAP, provides facilities for (1) sets
and lists, (2) an associative data structure, (3) independent
processes, and (4) procedure variables. The LEAP subset of
SAIL is an extension of the LEAP language, which was designed
by J. Feldman and P. Rovner, and implemented on Lincoln
Laboratory's TX-2 (see [Feldman & Rovner, "An Algol-Based
Associative Language," Communications of the ACM, v.12, no. 8
(Aug. 1969), pp.439-449]). The extensions to LEAP are
partially described in "Recent Developments is SAIL" (see
[Feldman et al., Proceedings of the AFIPS Fall Joint Computer
Conference, 1972, pp. 1193-1202]).
This manual describes the SAIL language and the
execution-time routines for the typical SAIL user: a
non-novice programmer with some knowledge of ALGOL. It lies
somewhere between being a tutorial and a reference manual.
http://i.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/cs/tr/73/373/CS-TR-73-373.pdf