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Version 6.0 of Icon*
Ralph E. Griswold
William H. Mitchell
Janalee O'Bagy
TR 86-10a
June 8, 1986
Department of Computer Science
The University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona 85721
*This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under
Grant DCR-8401831.
Version 6.0 of Icon
_1_.___B_a_c_k_g_r_o_u_n_d
Different versions of the Icon programming language are iden-
tified by numbers. The first, Version 1, was superceded by Ver-
sion 2. Starting with Version 3, the implementation of Icon was
completely changed. While Version 2 is still in use on some com-
puters, Version 5 is by far the mostly widely used version of
Icon. The features of Version 5 are described in the ``Icon
book'' [1]. Since this book is the only complete and generally
available description of a widely used version of Icon, Version 5
is sometimes called ``standard Icon''.
Since Icon is the byproduct of a research effort that is con-
cerned with the development of novel programming language
features, some extensions to the standard language are inevit-
able. These extensions are incorporated as features of new
releases of the implementation. These releases are identified by
minor version numbers that are separated from the major version
number by a decimal point. For example, Version 5.10 is the tenth
minor revision of Version 5.
Because of the relationship between language design and imple-
mentation, major version numbers usually contain significant
language changes that have accumulated over a number of minor
revisions, while minor version numbers primarily reflect imple-
mentation changes.
Recently an implementation of Icon written almost entirely in
C has been completed. This implementation is so different from
previous ones that some designation is needed to distinguish it
from other implementations. It therefore has been designated Ver-
sion 6. Despite the change in major version number, the Version
6.0 language is nearly the same as the Version 5.10 language and
the Version 5 book continues to serve as the primary reference
for Version 6. Since a revision of a book is a major and time-
consuming process, this report is provided to supplement the
present Icon book. Together, the book and this report provide a
description of Version 6.0.
Most of the language extensions in Version 6.0 are upward-
compatible with Version 5 and almost all programs that contain
only standard Version 5 features work properly under Version 6.0.
However, some of the more implementation-dependent aspects
described in the Version 5 book are now obsolete and there are
significant new language features.
- 1 -
_2_.___F_e_a_t_u_r_e_s__o_f__V_e_r_s_i_o_n__6_._0
Version 6.0 extensions consist of a declaration to facilitate
the use of Icon procedure libraries, a new set data type, new
options for sorting tables, new syntax to support the use of co-
expressions in programmer-defined control operations, the invoca-
tion of functions and operators by their string names, and a few
new functions.
_2_._1___T_h_e__L_i_n_k__D_e_c_l_a_r_a_t_i_o_n
The link declaration simplifies the inclusion of separately
translated libraries of Icon procedures. If icont [2] is run with
the -c option, source files are translated into intermediate
_u_c_o_d_e files (with names ending in .u1 and .u2). For example,
icont -c libe.icn
produces the ucode files libe.u1 and libe.u2. The ucode files can
be incorporated in another program with the new link declaration,
which has the form
link libe
The argument of link is, in general, a list of identifiers or
string literals that specify the names of files to be linked
(without the .u1 or .u2). Thus, when running under UNIX*,
link libe, "/usr/icon/ilib/collate"
specifies the linking of libe in the current directory and col-
late in /usr/icon/ilib. The syntax for paths may be different
for other operating systems.
The environment variable IPATH controls the location of files
specified in link declaratinos. The value of IPATH should be a
blank-separated string1 of the form _p_1 _p_2 ... _p_n where each _p_i
names a directory. Each directory is searched in turn to locate
files named in link declarations. The default value of IPATH is
the current directory.
_2_._2___S_e_t_s
Sets are unordered collections of values and have many of the
properties normally associated with sets in the mathematical
sense. The function
set(a)
__________________________
*UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories.
1The separator is a colon for UNIX systems under Versions
5.9 and 5.10.
- 2 -
creates a set that contains the distinct elements of the list a.
For example,
set(["abc",3])
creates a set with two members, abc and 3. Note that
set([])
creates an empty set. Sets, like other data aggregates in Icon,
need not be homogeneous - a set may contain members of different
types.
Sets, like other Icon data aggregates, are represented by
pointers to the actual data. Sets can be members of sets, as in
s1 := set([1,2,3])
s2 := set([s1,[]])
in which s2 contains two members, one of which is a set of three
members and the other of which is an empty list.
Any specific value can occur only once in a set. For example,
set([1,2,3,3,1])
creates a set with the three members 1, 2, and 3. Set membership
is determined the same way the equivalence of values is deter-
mined in the operation
x === y
For example,
set([[],[]])
creates a set that contains two distinct empty lists.
Several set operations are provided. The function
member(s,x)
succeeds and returns the value of x if x is a member of s, but
fails otherwise. Note that
member(s1,member(s2,x))
succeeds if x is a member of both s1 and s2.
The function
insert(s,x)
inserts x into the set s and returns the value of s. Note that
- 3 -
insert(s,x) is similar to put(a,x) in form. A set may contain (a
pointer to) itself:
insert(s,s)
adds s as an member of itself.
The function
delete(s,x)
deletes the member x from the set s and returns the value of s.
The functions insert(s,x) and delete(s,x) always succeed,
whether or not x is in s. This allows their use in loops in which
failure may occur for other reasons. For example,
s := set([])
while insert(s,read())
builds a set that consists of the (distinct) lines from the stan-
dard input file.
The operations
s1 ++ s2
s1 ** s2
s1 -- s2
create the union, intersection, and difference of s1 and s2,
respectively. In each case, the result is a new set.
The use of these operations on csets is unchanged. There is no
automatic type conversion between csets and sets; the result of
the operation depends on the types of the arguments. For example,
'aeiou' ++ 'abcde'
produces the cset 'abcdeiou', while
set([1,2,3]) ++ set([2,3,4])
produces a set that contains 1, 2, 3, and 4. On the other hand,
set([1,2,3]) ++ 4
results in Run-time Error 119 (set expected).
The functions and operations of Icon that apply to other data
aggregates apply to sets as well. For example, if s is a set,
*s
is the size of s (the number of members in it). Similarly,
- 4 -
type(s)
produces the string set. The string images of sets are in the
same style as for other aggregates, with the size enclosed in
parentheses. Therefore,
s := set(["abc",3])
write(image(s))
writes set(2).
The operation
!s
generates the members of s, but in no predictable order. Simi-
larly,
?s
produces a randomly selected member of s. These operations pro-
duce values, not variables - it is not possible to assign a value
to !s or ?s.
The function
copy(s)
produces a new set, distinct from s, but which contains the same
members as s. The copy is made in the same fashion as the copy of
a list - the members themselves are not copied.
The function
sort(s)
produces a list containing the members of s in sorted order.
Sets occur after tables but before records in Icon's collating
sequence.
_E_x_a_m_p_l_e_s
_W_o_r_d _C_o_u_n_t_i_n_g:
The following program lists, in alphabetical order, all the
different words that occur in standard input:
- 5 -
procedure main()
letter := &lcase ++ &ucase
words := set([])
while text := read() do
text ? while tab(upto(letter)) do
insert(words,tab(many(letter)))
every write(!sort(words))
end
_T_h_e _S_i_e_v_e _o_f _E_r_a_t_o_s_t_h_e_n_e_s:
The follow program produces prime numbers, using the classical
``Sieve of Eratosthenes'':
procedure main()
local limit, s, i
limit := 5000
s := set([])
every insert(s,1 to limit)
every member(s,i := 2 to limit) do
every delete(s,i + i to limit by i)
primes := sort(s)
write("There are ",*primes," primes in the first ",limit," integers.")
write("The primes are:")
every write(right(!primes,*limit + 1))
end
_2_._3___S_o_r_t_i_n_g__T_a_b_l_e_s
Two new options are available for sorting tables. These
options are specified by the values 3 and 4 as the second argu-
ment of sort(t,i). Both of these options produce a single list
in which the entry values and assigned values of table elements
alternate. A value of 3 for i produces a list in which the entry
values are in sorted order, and a value of 4 produces a list in
which the assigned values are in sorted order. For example, if
the table wcount contains elements whose entry values are words
and whose corresponding assigned values are counts, the following
code segment writes out a list of the words and their counts,
with the words in alphabetical order:
a := sort(wcount,3)
every i := 1 to *a - 1 by 2 do
write(a[i]," : ",a[i + 1])
The main advantage of the new sorting options is that they
only produce a single list, rather than a list of lists as pro-
duced by the options 1 and 2. The amount of space needed for the
single list is proportionally much less than for the list of
lists.
- 6 -
_2_._4___P_r_o_g_r_a_m_m_e_r_-_D_e_f_i_n_e_d__C_o_n_t_r_o_l__O_p_e_r_a_t_i_o_n_s
As described in [3], co-expressions can be used to provide
programmer-defined control operations. Version 6.0 provides sup-
port for this facility by means of an alternative syntax for pro-
cedure invocation in which the arguments are passed in a list of
co-expressions. This syntax uses braces in place of parentheses:
p{_e_x_p_r_1, _e_x_p_r_2, ..., _e_x_p_r_n}
is equivalent to
p([create _e_x_p_r_1, create _e_x_p_r_2, ..., create _e_x_p_r_n])
Note that
p{}
is equivalent to
p([])
_2_._5___I_n_v_o_c_a_t_i_o_n__B_y__S_t_r_i_n_g__N_a_m_e
A string-valued expression that corresponds to the name of a
procedure or operation can be used in place of the procedure or
operation in an invocation expression. For example,
"image"(x)
produces the same call as
image(x)
and
"-"(i,j)
is equivalent to
i - j
In the case of operator symbols with unary and binary forms,
the number of arguments determines the operation. Thus
"-"(i)
is equivalent to
-i
Since to-by is an operation, despite its reserved-word syntax, it
- 7 -
is included in this facility with the string name "..." . Thus
"..."(1,10,2)
is equivalent to
1 to 10 by 2
Similarly, range specifications are represented by ":", so that
":"(s,i,j)
is equivalent to
s[i:j]
Defaults are not provided for omitted or null-valued arguments
in this facility. Consequently,
"..."(1,10)
results in a run-time error when it is evaluated.
The subscripting operation is available with the string name
"[]". Thus
"[]"(&lcase,3)
produces c.
Arguments to operators invoked by string names are derefer-
enced. Consequently, string invocation for assignment operations
is ineffective and results in error termination.
String names are available for the operations in Icon, but not
for control structures. Thus
"|"(_e_x_p_r_1,_e_x_p_r_2)
is erroneous. Note that string scanning is a control structure.
Field references, of the form
_e_x_p_r . _f_i_e_l_d_n_a_m_e
are not operations in the ordinary sense and are not available
via string invocation. In addition, conjunction is not available
via string invocation, since no operation is actually performed.
String names for procedures are available through global iden-
tifiers. Note that the names of functions, such as image, are
global identifiers. Similarly, any procedure-valued global iden-
tifier may be used as the string name of a procedure. Thus in
- 8 -
global q
procedure main()
q := p
"q"("hi")
end
procedure p(s)
write(s)
end
the procedure p is invoked via the global identifier q.
_2_._6___N_e_w__F_u_n_c_t_i_o_n_s
The function proc(x,i) converts x to a procedure, if possible.
If x is procedure-valued, its value is returned unchanged. If the
value of x is a string that corresponds to the name of a pro-
cedure as described in the preceding section, the corresponding
procedure value is returned. The value of i is used to distin-
guish between unary and binary operators. For example,
proc("*",2) produces the multiplication operator, while
proc("*",1) produces the size operator. The default value for i
is 1. If x cannot be converted to a procedure, proc(x,i) fails.
The function seq(i,j) generates an infinite sequence of
integers starting at i with increments of j. An omitted or null-
valued argument defaults to 1. For example, seq() generates 1, 2,
3, ... .
Storage is allocated automatically during the execution of an
Icon program, and garbage collections are performed automatically
to reclaim storage for subsequent reallocation. Garbage collec-
tion normally only occurs when it is necessary. Garbage collec-
tion can be forced by the function collect().
_2_._7___M_i_n_o_r__L_a_n_g_u_a_g_e__C_h_a_n_g_e_s
There are two minor language changes:
o+ The keyword &options of Version 5.10 is not present in
Version 6.0.
o+ Version 6.0 reads the last line of a file, even if that
line does not end with a newline; Version 5 discards
such a line.
_2_._8___V_e_r_s_i_o_n__C_h_e_c_k_i_n_g
The Icon translator converts a source-language program to an
intermediate form, called _u_c_o_d_e. The Icon linker converts one or
more ucode files to a binary form called _i_c_o_d_e. The format of
Version 6.0 ucode and icode files is different from that of ear-
lier versions. To avoid the possibility of malfunction due to
- 9 -
incompatible ucode and icode formats, Version 6.0 checks both
ucode and icode files and terminates processing with an error
message if the versions are not correct.
_3_.___O_b_s_o_l_e_t_e__a_n_d__C_h_a_n_g_e_d__F_e_a_t_u_r_e_s__o_f__V_e_r_s_i_o_n__5
The original implementation of Version 5 supported both a com-
piler (iconc) and an interpreter (icont). Version 6.0 supports
only an interpreter. Interpretation is only slightly slower than
the execution of compiled code and the interpreter is portable
and gets into execution much more quickly than the compiler. How-
ever, it is not possible to load C functions with the interpreter
as it was with the compiler. A system for personalized inter-
preters [4] is included with Version 6.0 for UNIX systems to make
it comparatively easy to add new functions and otherwise modify
the Icon run-time system.
Some run-time environment variables have changed; see Appendix
A. A number of error messages have been changed. Appendix B
contains a list of run-time error messages.
_4_.___K_n_o_w_n__B_u_g_s__i_n__V_e_r_s_i_o_n__6_._0
o+ The translator does not detect arithmetic overflow in
conversion of numeric literals. Very large numeric
literals may have incorrect values.
o+ Integer overflow on multiplication and exponentiation is
not detected during execution. Such overflow may occur
during type conversion.
o+ Line numbers may be wrong in diagnostic messages related
to lines with continued quoted literals.
o+ In some cases, trace messages may show the return of sub-
scripted values, such as &null[2], that would be errone-
ous if they were dereferenced.
o+ If a long file name for an Icon source-language program
is truncated by the operating system, mysterious diagnos-
tic messages may occur during linking.
o+ Stack overflow is checked using a heuristic that may not
always be effective.
o+ If an expression such as
x := create _e_x_p_r
is used in a loop, and x is not a global variable,
unreferenceable co-expressions are generated by each suc-
cessive create operation. These co-expressions are not
- 10 -
garbage collected. This problem can be circumvented by
making x a global variable or by assigning a value to x
before the create operation, as in
x := &null
x := create _e_x_p_r
o+ Stack overflow in a co-expression may not be detected and
may cause mysterious program malfunction.
o+ Co-expressions were designed to support coroutine pro-
gramming as well as the more usual application for the
controlled production of the results of a generator.
However, the implementation is not sufficiently general
to support coroutines. In Version 5, the use of co-
expressions in a coroutine fashion could produce program
malfunction. In Version 6.0, such uses are prevented and
cause error termination. As a consequence, some uses of
co-expressions that worked in Version 5 may not work in
Version 6.0. In particular, the example in Section 13.4.2
of the Icon book does not work in Version 6.0.
o+ The garbage collector was designed for machines with com-
paratively small address spaces and may not perform well
for computers with very large address spaces. In partic-
ular, if an attempt is made to create a very large data
object that will not fit into memory (such as a million-
element list), it takes an inordinately long time to
determine that the object can not be allocated.
_5_.___P_o_s_s_i_b_l_e__D_i_f_f_e_r_e_n_c_e_s__A_m_o_n_g__V_e_r_s_i_o_n__6_._0__I_m_p_l_e_m_e_n_t_a_t_i_o_n_s
Version 6.0 of Icon is written almost entirely in C and most
of its features are machine-independent. Appendix B of the Icon
book lists differences that may occur because of different
machine architectures. In addition to the differences listed
there, the implementation of sets and tables uses a parameter
that is different for 16- and 32-bit computers. This parameter
determines how set members and table elements are physically
stored as a result of hashing. The difference only is noticeable
in the results produced by !x and ?x, where x is a set or a
table.
A few aspects of the implementation of Version 6.0 are
specific to different computer architectures and operating sys-
tems. Co-expressions require a context switch that is implemented
in assembly language. If this context switch is not implemented,
an attempt to activate a co-expression results in error termina-
tion. Arithmetic overflow checking also generally requires
assembly-language routines and may not be supported on some
implementations of Version 6.0.
- 11 -
Some features of Icon, such as opening a pipe for i/o and the
system function, are closely related to UNIX. These features
should work correctly for Version 6.0 running on UNIX systems,
but they may not be supported on other operating systems.
_A_c_k_n_o_w_l_e_d_g_e_m_e_n_t_s
In addition to the authors of this report, several persons
contributed to the implementation of Version 6.0 of Icon. The
implementation of sets and the new sorting options were done by
Rob McConeghy. Other major contributors include Gregg Townsend,
Chris Janton, and Kelvin Nilsen.
_R_e_f_e_r_e_n_c_e_s
1. Griswold, Ralph E. and Madge T. Griswold. _T_h_e _I_c_o_n _P_r_o_g_r_a_m_-
_m_i_n_g _L_a_n_g_u_a_g_e, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
1983.
2. Griswold, Ralph E. _I_C_O_N_T(_1), manual page for _U_N_I_X
_P_r_o_g_r_a_m_m_e_r'_s _M_a_n_u_a_l, Department of Computer Science, The Univer-
sity of Arizona. May 1986.
3. Griswold, Ralph E. and Michael Novak. ``Programmer-Defined
Control Operations'', _T_h_e _C_o_m_p_u_t_e_r _J_o_u_r_n_a_l, Vol. 26, No. 2 (May
1983).
4. Griswold, Ralph E. _P_e_r_s_o_n_a_l_i_z_e_d _I_n_t_e_r_p_r_e_t_e_r_s _f_o_r _V_e_r_s_i_o_n _6._0
_o_f _I_c_o_n, Technical Report TR 86-12, Department of Computer Sci-
ence, The University of Arizona. May 1985.
- 12 -
Appendix A - Environment Variables
There are a number of environment variables that can be set to
override the default values for sizes of Icon's storage regions
and other run-time parameters. These environment variables are:
TRACE The initial value of &trace. The default value is
zero.
NBUFS The number of input-output buffers. The default
value is 10 for computers with large address
spaces and 5 for computers with small address
spaces.
NOERRBUF No buffering of standard error output.
ICONCORE Produce a core dump in the case of error termina-
tion.
MSTKSIZE The size in words of the main interpreter stack.
The default value is 10000 for machines with large
address spaces and 3000 for machines with small
address spaces.
STRSIZE The initial size in bytes of the allocated string
region. The default value is 51200 for machines
with large address spaces and 10240 for machines
with small address spaces.
HEAPSIZE The initial size in bytes of the allocated block
region. The default value is 51200 for machines
with large address spaces and 10240 for machines
with small address spaces.
STATSIZE The initial size in bytes of the static region in
which co-expressions are allocated. The default
value is 20480 for machines with large address
spaces and 1024 for machines with small address
spaces.
STATINCR The increment for expanding the static region. The
default increment is one-fourth the initial size
of the static region.
COEXPSIZE The size in words of co-expression blocks. The
default value is 2000 for machines with large
address spaces and 1000 for machines with small
address spaces.
- 13 -
Appendix B - Run-Time Error Messages
101 integer expected
102 numeric expected
103 string expected
104 cset expected
105 file expected
106 procedure or integer expected
107 record expected
108 list expected
109 string or file expected
110 string or list expected
111 variable expected
112 invalid type to size operation
113 invalid type to random operation
114 invalid type to subscript operation
115 list or table expected
116 invalid type to element generator
117 missing main procedure
118 co-expression expected
119 set expected
201 division by zero
202 remaindering by zero
203 integer overflow
204 real overflow underflow or division by zero
205 value out of range
206 negative first operand to real exponentiation
207 invalid field name
208 second and third arguments to map of unequal length
209 invalid second argument to open
210 argument to system function too long
211 by clause equal to zero
212 attempt to read file not open for reading
213 attempt to write file not open for writing
214 recursive co-expression activation
301 interpreter stack overflow
302 C stack overflow
303 unable to expand memory region
304 memory region size changed
- 14 -
