PEARL, or Process and experiment automation realtime language, is a
computer
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...
programming language designed for multitasking and
real-time programming. Being a
high-level language, it is fairly
cross-platform. Since 1977, the language has been going under several standardization steps by the
Deutsches Institut für Normung. The current version is PEARL-90, which was standardized in 1998 as DIN 66253-2.
Features
PEARL supports both
fixed-point and
floating-point
In computing, floating-point arithmetic (FP) is arithmetic that represents real numbers approximately, using an integer with a fixed precision, called the significand, scaled by an integer exponent of a fixed base. For example, 12.345 can b ...
numeric values, character and character
string
String or strings may refer to:
*String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...
data as well as bit values. It also provides facilities for structures and multi-dimensional
arrays. Both typed and untyped pointers are also supported, along with typecasting.
PEARL is a higher programming language, which allows a comfortable, secure and almost processor independent programming of multitasking and realtime problems and has been standardized since 1977 at various stages of its development, the last time 1998 as PEARL-90 (DIN 66253-2 1998, Berlin, Beuth-Verlag, 1998).
Besides the simple possibility to map process technical problems, an important principle at the development of PEARL was the easy learning by the programmer.
All basic data types and language structures of other procedural programming languages exist in PEARL. In addition PEARL offers comfortable language elements for the handling of multitasking- and realtime tasks.
Like most other high-level languages, PEARL supports
procedures
Procedure may refer to:
* Medical procedure
* Instructions or recipes, a set of commands that show how to achieve some result, such as to prepare or make something
* Procedure (business), specifying parts of a business process
* Standard operati ...
and functions, and passing parameters to these can be done by value or by reference (via
pointers).
Example
MODULE (HELLOWORLD);
SYSTEM;
TERMINAL:DIS<->SDVLS(2);
PROBLEM;
SPC TERMINAL DATION INOUT ALPHIC DIM(,) TFU MAX FORWARD CONTROL (ALL);
MAIN:TASK;
OPEN TERMINAL;
PUT 'Hello World!' TO TERMINAL;
CLOSE TERMINAL;
END;
MODEND;
External links
Process and Experiment Automation Realtime Language PEARL 90 - Language Report(PDF)
Procedural programming languages
Statically typed programming languages
Real-time computing
Programming languages created in 1977
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