REC/SM: a semi structured programming language

Abstract

Regular Expression Compiler (REC) is a programming language of extremely simple structure. It is a goto-less language which has very appealing transfer of control operations. It is a generalized language which can be implemented for special purpose applications by a proper choice of operators and predicates. This paper describes REC language and one of its "symbol manipulation" implementations, REC/SM. The language has been enormously successful from the users satisfaction point of view. And like BLISS, it has once again proved that the well-publicized inconvenience of programming without a goto is a myth.