MINC ("MINC is not
C") is a data specification language written in the mid-1980s by a
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
graduate student named
Lars Graf. This kind of naming is known as a "recursive acronym".
It contains many (though not all) of the syntactical capabilities of the C programming language, and can be used to implement simple procedural programs that can be executed by a runtime
parser
Parsing, syntax analysis, or syntactic analysis is a process of analyzing a string of symbols, either in natural language, computer languages or data structures, conforming to the rules of a formal grammar by breaking it into parts. The term '' ...
(that is to say, MINC does not need to be compiled in any way).
MINC continues to be used only in a handful of programs written in the 1980s (e.g. Real-Time Cmix). It has been for all intents and purposes superseded by modern scripting languages such as
Perl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Though Perl is not officially an acronym, there are various backronyms in use, including "Practical Extraction and Reporting Language".
Perl was developed ...
,
Python
Python may refer to:
Snakes
* Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia
** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia
* Python (mythology), a mythical serpent
Computing
* Python (prog ...
, and
Tcl
TCL or Tcl or TCLs may refer to:
Business
* TCL Technology, a Chinese consumer electronics and appliance company
** TCL Electronics, a subsidiary of TCL Technology
* Texas Collegiate League, a collegiate baseball league
* Trade Centre Limited ...
.
A controversial aspect of the language is whether it is pronounced "mink" or "min-see".
External links
MINC tutorial at CMIX home page
Scripting languages