A Fortran-Compiled List-Processing Language

Abstract

A compiled computer language for the manipulation of symbolic expressions organized in storage as Newell-Shaw-Simon lists has been developed as a tool to make more convenient the task of programming the simulation of a geometry theorem-proving machine on the IBM 704 high-speed electronic digital computer. Statements in the language are written in usual Fortran notation, but with a large set of special list-processing functions appended to the standard Fortran library. The algebraic structure of certain statements in this language corresponds closely to the structure of an NSS list, making possible the generation and manipulation of complex list expressions with a single statement. The many programming advantages accruing from the use of Fortran, and in particular, the ease with which massive and complex programs may be revised, combined with the flexibility offered by an NSS list organization of storage make the language particularly useful where, as in the case of our theorem-proving program, intermediate data of unpredictable form, complexity, and length may be generated. © 1960, ACM. All rights reserved.