SYMPL is an obsolete programming language developed by the

Control Data Corporation Control Data Corporation (CDC) was a mainframe and supercomputer company that in the 1960s was one of the nine major U.S. computer companies, which group included IBM, the Burroughs Corporation, and the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), the N ...

(CDC) for use on the

CDC 6000 series The CDC 6000 series is a discontinued family of mainframe computers manufactured by Control Data Corporation in the 1960s. It consisted of the CDC 6200, CDC 6300, #Versions, CDC 6400, #Versions, CDC 6500, CDC 6600 and #Versions, CDC 6700 computers, ...

computer systems in the 1970s and 1980s. It was based on a subset of CDC's version of

JOVIAL JOVIAL is a high-level programming language based on ALGOL 58, specialized for developing embedded systems (specialized computer systems designed to perform one or a few dedicated functions, usually embedded as part of a larger, more complete d ...

, as an alternative to

assembly language In computing, assembly language (alternatively assembler language or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence bet ...

. A number of important CDC software products were implemented in SYMPL, including compilers, libraries, a full-screen editor, and major subsystems. SYMPL is a

compiled In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that ...

, imperative, and procedural language. Compared to the Fortran of the day, SYMPL supports: * Strong data typing: All variables must be declared before use * Boolean variables * Variable bit width integers (both signed and unsigned) * "Status" (enumerated integer) variables *

Data structures In computer science, a data structure is a data organization and storage format that is usually chosen for efficient access to data. More precisely, a data structure is a collection of data values, the relationships among them, and the functi ...

- Including "based" dynamically allocated structures *

Structured programming Structured programming is a programming paradigm aimed at improving the clarity, quality, and development time of a computer program by making specific disciplined use of the structured control flow constructs of selection ( if/then/else) and repet ...

constructs * Nested procedures * In-fix "bead" (bit) and character manipulation * A simple macro facility A distinct feature of SYMPL, also found in JOVIAL tables, is that arrays of multi-item variables can be specified with either a "serial" or "parallel" memory layout. A "serial" layout has array entries following one another in memory as is usual in most computer languages. A "parallel" layout groups each of the individual items within each of the array entries together. For example, if each array entry has items x, y, and z, a parallel layout would group x ..x together in memory, followed by y ..y and then z ..z This has the effect of potentially speeding up access to all the same items across the array - as they are all contiguous with one another. Simplifications compared to

include: no fixed point data type, no table structures, and no COMPOOL concept. Though in lieu of COMPOOLs, a CDC-specific system text capability allows encapsulation of common data declarations.

External links

Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer program - written in SYMPL

SYMPL coding standard

SYMPL Reference Manual

SYMPL Users Guide
Procedural programming languages Systems programming languages Control Data Corporation mainframe software Programming languages created in the 1970s {{compu-lang-stub