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Version 7.5 of Icon*
Ralph E. Griswold
Gregg M. Townsend
Kenneth Walker
TR 88-41
December 15, 1988
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 7.5 of Icon
1. Background
The current version of Icon is Version 7.5, which is a minor
revision of Version 7.0. Version 7.5 contains a number of
features not present in earlier versions, but otherwise is nearly
the same as Version 5. The Icon book [1], which describes Ver-
sion 5, continues to serve as the primary reference for Version
7.5. This report supplements the present Icon book. Together,
the book and this report provide a complete description of Ver-
sion 7.5.
Most of the language extensions in Version 7.5 are upward-
compatible with Version, 5 and almost all Version 5 and Version 6
Icon programs work properly under Version 7.5. However, some of
the more implementation-dependent aspects described in the Ver-
sion 5 book are now obsolete. See Section 3. The differences
between Version 7.0 and 7.5 are so minor that most users will not
detect them.
2. Features of Version 7.5
The major differences between Version 7.5 and Version 5 are
listed below. Features that are new since Version 6 are identi-
fied by hollow squares ([]). Features that are new since Version
7.0 are identified by hollow circles (O). In some cases these
designations are not precise, since there are many interactions
between features in different versions; they are intended only to
focus attention.
A declaration to allow the inclusion of separately
translated Icon programs.
A set data type.
New options for sorting tables.
Syntax to support the use of co-expressions in
programmer-defined control operations.
The invocation of functions and operators by their string
names.
[] New functions, especially for interfacing the operating
system and manipulating bits.
- 1 -
[] Correction of the handling of scanning environments.
[] Correction of the handling of co-expression return points
and new co-expression facilities.
[] Declaration of procedures with a variable number of argu-
ments.
[] The ability to convert potential run-time errors to
expression failure.
[] New keywords.
[] Error traceback, which provides detailed information
about the source of run-time errors.
2.1 O Command-Line Options
Options to icont must precede file names on the command line.
For example,
icont -o manager proto.icn
not
icont proto.icn -o manager
The position of options has always been documented this way, but
it was not enforced previously. Consequently, options in the
incorrect position that worked before will not work now. This
problem is most likely to occur in scripts that were composed
under earlier version of Icon.
Note that the -x option is an exception; it must occur after
all file names for icont, since any command-line arguments after
-x apply to execution (iconx).
2.2 The Link Declaration
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
ucode 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
- 2 -
(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 declarations. The value of IPATH should be a
blank-separated string of the form p1 p2 ... pn where each pi
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. The current directory is always searched
first, regardless of the value of IPATH.
2.3 New Functions
Most of the new functions are described in this section. See
subsequent sections for functions specifically related to other
new features. Note: Some implementations have additional func-
tions. These are described in user manuals.
[] System-Interface Functions
getenv(s)
getenv(s) produces the value of the environment variable s. It
fails if the environment variable is not set. It also fails on
systems that do not support environment variables.
remove(s)
remove(s) removes the file named s. Subsequent attempts to
open the file fail, unless it is created anew. If the file is
open, the behavior of remove(s) is system dependent. remove(s)
fails if it is unsuccessful.
rename(s1,s2)
rename(s1,s2) causes the file named s1 to be henceforth known
by the name s2. The file named s1 is effectively removed. If a
file named s2 exists prior to the renaming, the behavior is sys-
tem dependent. rename(s1,s2) fails if unsuccessful, in which
case if the file existed previously it is still known by its ori-
ginal name. Among the other possible causes of failure would be a
file currently open, or a necessity to copy the file's contents
to rename it.
*UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories.
- 3 -
seek(f,i)
seek(f,i) seeks to position i in file f. As with other posi-
tions in Icon, a nonpositive value of i can be used to reference
a position relative to the end of f. i defaults to 1. seek(f,i)
returns f but fails if an error occurs.
where(f)
where(f) returns the current byte position in the file f.
[] Characters and Ordinals
char(i)
char(i) produces a string containing the character whose
internal representation, or ordinal, is the integer i. i must be
between 0 and 255 inclusive. If i is out of range, or not con-
vertible to integer, a run-time error occurs.
ord(s)
ord(s) produces an integer between 0 and 255 representing the
ordinal, or internal representation, of a character. If s is not
convertible to string, or if the string's length is not 1, a
run-time error occurs.
[] Tab Expansion and Insertion
detab(s,i1,i2,...,in)
detab(s,i1,i2,...,in) replaces each tab character in s by one
or more space characters, using tab stops at i1,i2...,in, and
then additional tab stops created by repeating the last interval
as necessary. The default is detab(s,9).
Tab stops must be positive and strictly increasing. There is
an implicit tab stop at position 1 to establish the first inter-
val. Examples:
detab(s) tab stops at 9, 17, 25, 33, ...
detab(s,5) tab stops at 5, 9, 13, 17, ...
detab(s,8,12) tab stops at 8, 12, 16, 20, ...
detab(s,11,18,30,36) tab stops at 11, 18, 30, 36, 42, 48, ...
For purposes of tab processing, "\b" has a width of -1, and "\r"
and "\n" restart the counting of positions. Other nonprinting
characters have zero width, and printing characters have a width
of 1.
entab(s,i1,i2,...,in)
entab(s,i1,i2,...,in) replaces runs of consecutive spaces with
tab characters. Tab stops are specified in the same manner as
- 4 -
for the detab function. Any existing tab characters in s are
preserved, and other nonprinting characters are treated identi-
cally with the detab function. The default is entab(s,9).
A lone space is never replaced by a tab character; however, a
tab character may replace a single space character that is part
of a longer run.
[] Bit-Wise Functions
The following functions operate on the individual bits compos-
ing one or two integers. All produce an integer result.
iand(i,j) produces the bit-wise and of i and j
ior(i,j) produces the bit-wise inclusive or of i and j
ixor(i,j) produces the bit-wise exclusive or of i and j
icom(i) produces the bit-wise complement (one's complement) of i
ishift(i,j) If j is positive, produces i shifted left by j bit positions.
If j is negative, produces i shifted right by -j bit positions.
If j is zero, produces i.
In all cases, vacated bit positions are filled with zeroes.
[] Executable Images
save(s)
The function save(s) saves an executable image of an executing
Icon program in the file named s. This function presently is
implemented only on 4.nbsd UNIX systems. See Section 2.11 for a
method of determining if this feature is implemented.
save can be called from any point in a program. It accepts a
single argument that names the file that is to receive the
resulting executable. The named file is created if it does not
exist. Any output problems on the file cause save to fail. For
lack of anything better, save returns the number of bytes in the
data region.
When the new executable is run, execution of the Icon program
begins in the main procedure. Global and static variables have
the value they had when save was called, but all dynamic local
variables have the null value. Any initial clauses that have been
executed are not re-executed. As usual, arguments present on the
command line are passed to the main procedure as a list. Command
line input and output redirections are processed normally, but
any files that were open are no longer open and attempts to read
or write them will fail.
When the Icon interpreter starts up, it examines a number of
environment variables to determine various operational parame-
ters. When a saved executable starts up, the environment vari-
ables are not examined; the parameter values recorded in the exe-
cutable are used instead. Note that many of the parameter values
- 5 -
are dynamic and may have changed considerably from values sup-
plied initially.
Consider an example:
global hello
procedure main()
initial {
hello := "Hello World!"
save("hello") | stop("Error saving to 'hello'")
exit()
}
write(hello)
end
The global variable hello is assigned "Hello World!" and then
the interpreter is saved to the file hello. The program then
exits. When hello is run, main's initial clause is skipped since
it has already been executed. The variable hello has retained its
value and the call to write produces the expected greeting.
It is possible to call save any number of times during the
course of execution. Saving to the same file each time is rather
uninteresting, but imagine a complex data structure that passes
through levels of refinement and then saving out a series of exe-
cutables that capture the state of the structure at given times.
Saved executables contain the entire data space present at the
time of the save and thus can be quite large. Saved executables
on the VAX are typically around 250k bytes.
Integer Sequences
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, ... .
2.4 Structures
Sets
Sets are unordered collections of values and have many of the
properties normally associated with sets in the mathematical
sense. The function
set(a)
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.
- 6 -
[] The default value for an omitted argument to set is an
empty list. Consequently,
set()
creates an empty set.
Sets, like other data aggregates in Icon, need not be homo-
geneous - 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
insert(s,x) is similar to put(a,x) in form. A set may contain (a
pointer to) itself:
- 7 -
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,
type(s)
- 8 -
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.
Examples
Word Counting:
The following program lists, in alphabetical order, all the
different words that occur in standard input:
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
- 9 -
The Sieve of Eratosthenes:
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
[] Tables
The functions member, insert, and delete apply to tables as
well as sets.
The function member(t,x) succeeds if x is an entry value (key)
in the table t, but fails otherwise.
The function insert(t,x,y) inserts the entry value x into
table t with the assigned value y. If there already was an entry
value x in t, its assigned value is changed. Note that insert
has three arguments when used with tables, as compared to two
when used with sets. An omitted third argument defaults to the
null value.
The function delete(t,x) removes the entry value x and its
corresponding assigned value from t. If x is not an entry value
in t, no operation is performed; delete succeeds in either case.
[] Sorting Order for Elements of Lists and Tables
A complete ordering is now defined for structures (lists,
sets, tables, and records) and csets that appear in a larger
structure to be sorted. Different types are still kept separate,
but within each structure type, elements are now sorted chrono-
logically (in the order they were created). All of the different
record types are sorted together. Csets are sorted lexically, in
the same fashion as strings.
Sorting Options for Tables
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
- 10 -
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.
2.5 Programmer-Defined Control Operations
As described in [3], co-expressions can be used to provide
programmer-defined control operations. Version 7.5 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{expr1, expr2, ..., exprn}
is equivalent to
p([create expr1, create expr2, ..., create exprn])
Note that
p{}
is equivalent to
p([])
2.6 Invocation By String Name
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)
- 11 -
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
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]
The subscripting operation is available with the string name
"[]". Thus
"[]"(&lcase,3)
produces c.
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.
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
- 12 -
for control structures. Thus
"|"(expr1,expr2)
is erroneous. Note that string scanning is a control structure.
Field references, of the form
expr . fieldname
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
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.
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.
2.7 [] String Scanning
Scanning environments (&subject and &pos) are now maintained
correctly. In particular, they are are now restored when a scan-
ning expression is exited via break, next, return, fail, and
suspend. This really is a correction of a bug, although the
former handling of scanning environments is described as a
`feature' in the Icon book. Note also that this change could
affect the behavior of existing Icon programs.
- 13 -
2.8 [] Procedures with a Variable Number of Arguments
A procedure can be made to accept a variable number of argu-
ments by appending [] to the last (or only) parameter in the
parameter list. An example is:
procedure p(a,b,c[])
suspend a + b + !c
end
If called as p(1,2,3,4,5), the parameters have the following
values:
a 1
b 2
c [3,4,5]
The last parameter always contains a list. This list consists
of the arguments not used by the previous parameters. If the pre-
vious parameters use up all the arguments, the list is empty. If
there are not enough arguments to satisfy the previous parame-
ters, the null value will be used for the remaining ones, but the
last parameter will still contain the empty list.
The following procedure, which models the function write, but
keeps a count of the number of arguments written, illustrates a
use of this feature:
global wcount
procedure Write(a[])
initial wcount := 0
wcount +:= *a
every writes(!a)
write()
end
2.9 [] Co-Expressions
Co-expression return points are now handled properly, so that
co-expressions can be used as coroutines.
The image of a co-expression now includes an identifying
number. Numbers start with 1 for &main and increase as new co-
expressions are created.
Co-expression activation and return are now traced along with
procedure calls and returns if &trace is nonzero. Co-expression
tracing shows the identifying numbers.
- 14 -
There is a new keyword, ¤t, the current co-expression.
O The initial size of &main is now 1, instead of 0, to reflect
its activation to start program execution.
O An attempt to refresh &main results in a run-time error.
(Formerly, it caused a memory violation.)
2.10 [] Input and Output
There no longer are any length limitations on the string pro-
duced by read() or reads(), nor on the length of the argument to
system() or the first argument of open().
Formerly the value returned by write(x1,x2,...,xn) and
writes(x1,x2,...,xn) was the last written argument converted to a
string. The conversion is no longer performed. For example, the
value returned by write(1) is the integer 1.
Errors during writing (such as inadequate space on the output
device) now cause error termination.
The function read(f) reads the last line of the file f, even
if that line does not end with a newline (Version 5 discarded
such a line).
If the file f is open as a pipe, close(f) returns the system
code resulting from closing f instead of f.
Icon no longer performs its own I/O buffering; instead, this
function is left to the operating system on which Icon runs. The
environment variable NBUFS is no longer supported.
2.11 Errors
[] Error Traceback
A run-time error now shows a traceback, giving the sequence of
procedure calls to the site of the error, followed by a symbolic
rendering of the offending expression. For example, suppose the
following program is contained in the file max.icn:
procedure main()
i := max("a",1)
end
procedure max(i,j)
if i > j then i else j
end
Its execution in Version 7.5 produces the following output:
- 15 -
Run-time error 102
File max.icn; Line 6
numeric expected
offending value: "a"
Traceback:
main()
max("a",1) from line 2 in max.icn
{"a" > 1} from line 6 in max.icn
[] Error Conversion
A new keyword, &error, is provided to allow users to convert
most run-time errors into expression failure. It behaves like
&trace: if it is zero, the default value, errors are handled as
usual. If it is non-zero, errors are treated as failure and
&error is decremented.
There are a few errors that cannot be converted to failure:
arithmetic overflow and underflow, stack overflow, and errors
during program initialization.
When an error is converted to failure in this way, three key-
words are set:
+ &errornumber is the number of the error (e.g., 101).
Reference to &errornumber fails if there has not been an
error.
+ &errortext is the error message (e.g., integer expected).
+ &errorvalue is the offending value. Reference to &error-
value fails if there is no specific offending value.
The function errorclear() removes the indication of the last
error. Subsequent references to &errornumber fail until another
error occurs.
A use of these keywords is illustrated by the following pro-
cedure, which could be used to process potential run-time errors
that had been converted to failure:
procedure ErrorCheck()
write("\nError ",&errornumber)
write(&errortext)
write("offending value: ",image(&errorvalue))
writes("\nDo you want to continue? (n)")
if map(read()) == ("y" | "yes") then return
else exit()
end
For example,
- 16 -
&error := -1
.
.
.
write(s) | ErrorCheck()
could be used to check for an error during writing, while
(a := sort(t,3)) | ErrorCheck()
could be used to detect failure to sort a table into a list (for
lack of adequate storage).
The function runerr(i,x) causes program execution to terminate
with error number i as if a corresponding run-time error had
occurred. If i is the number of a standard run-time error, the
corresponding error text is printed; otherwise no error text is
printed. The value of x is given as the offending value. If x is
omitted, no offending value is printed.
This function is provided so that library procedures can be
written to terminate in the same fashion as built-in operations.
It is advisable to use error numbers for programmer-defined
errors that are well outside the range of numbers used by Icon
itself. See Appendix B. Error number 500 has the predefined text
program malfunction for use with runerr. This number is not used
by Icon itself.
A call of runerr is subject to conversion to failure like any
other run-time error.
2.12 [] Implementation Features
Since different implementations of Icon may support different
features and some installations may chose to provide a subset of
the full Version 7.5, the keyword &features has been provided to
provide such information. &features generates the features of the
implementation on which the current program is running. For exam-
ple, on a 4.nbsd UNIX implementation,
every write(&features)
produces
UNIX
co-expressions
overflow checking
direct execution
environment variables
error traceback
executable images
string invocation
expandable regions
- 17 -
Similarly, a program that uses co-expressions can check for
the presence of this feature:
if not(&features == "co-expressions") then runerr(-401)
2.13 [] Storage Management
Storage is allocated automatically during the execution of an
Icon program, and garbage collections are performed automatically
to reclaim storage for subsequent reallocation. There are three
storage regions: static, string, and block. Only implementations
in which regions can be expanded support a static region. See
[4] for more information.
An Icon programmer normally need not worry about storage
management. However, in applications that require a large amount
of storage or that must operate in a limited amount of memory,
some knowledge of the storage management process may be useful.
The keyword &collections generates four values associated with
garbage collection: the total number since program initiation,
the number triggered by static allocation, the number triggered
by string allocation, and the number triggered by block alloca-
tion. The keyword ®ions generates the current sizes of the
static, string, and block regions. The keyword &storage gen-
erates the current amount of space used in the static, string,
and block regions. The value given for the static region
presently is not meaningful.
O Garbage collection is forced by the function collect(i,j).
The value of i specifies the region and the value of j specifies
the amount of space that must be free following the collection.
The regions are designated as follows:
i region
1 static
2 string
3 block
The region specified is reflected in the values generated by
&collections. A value of 0 for i causes a garbage collection
without a specific region. In this case, the value of j is
irrelevant. The default values for i and j are 0.
2.14 Version Checking
The Icon translator converts a source-language program to an
intermediate form, called ucode. The Icon linker converts one or
more ucode files to a binary form called icode. The format of
Version 7.5 ucode and icode files is different from that of ear-
lier versions. To avoid the possibility of malfunction due to
incompatible ucode and icode formats, Version 7.5 checks both
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ucode and icode files and terminates processing with an error
message if the versions are not correct.
2.15 Odds and Ends
[] Other Keywords
In addition to the new keywords mentioned above, there are
three others:
+ &digits, whose value is the cset '0123456789'.
+ &line, the current source-code line number.
+ &file, the current source-code file name.
[] External Data Type
There is a new data type, external, for use in extensions to
Icon that require the allocation of unstructured blocks of data.
This data type should not be visible in standard versions of
Icon.
[] Addition to suspend
The suspend control structure now has an optional do clause,
analogous to every-do. If a do clause is present in a suspend
control structure, its argument is evaluated after the suspend is
resumed and before possible suspension with another result.
For example, the following expression might be used to count
the number of suspensions:
suspend expr do count +:= 1
O String Images
``Unprintable'' characters in strings now are imaged with hex-
adecimal escape sequences rather than with octal ones.
O Display Output
The function display(f,i) now prints the image of the current
co-expression before listing the values of variables.
O Tracing
If the value of &trace is negative, it is decremented every
time a trace message is written. Previously it was left
unchanged. This change does not affect tracing itself, but it
does allow the number of trace messages that have been written to
be determined by a running program.
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[] Linker Options
The option to generate diagnostic (.ux) files during linking
has been changed from -D to -L.
The amount of space needed to associate source-program line
numbers with executable code can be set by -Snn. The default
value of n is 1000. Similarly, the amount of space needed to
associate file names with executable code can be set by -SFn. The
default is 10.
[] Path to iconx
For implementations that support direct execution of icode
files, the hardwired path to iconx is overridden by the value of
the environment variable ICONX, if it is set.
O Block Region Size
The environment variable BLOCKSIZE is now a synonym for HEAP-
SIZE.
[] File Names
During translation and linking, the suffix .u is interpreted
as .u1, and no suffix is interpreted as .icn.
On MS-DOS, VMS, and the Atari ST the icode file produced by
the linker now has the extension icx. For example,
icont prog.icn
produces an icode file named prog.icx. The extension need not be
given when using iconx:
iconx prog
looks first for prog.icx; failing that it looks for prog.
[] Redirection of Error Output
The option -e now allows standard error output to be
redirected to a file. For example,
iconx -e prog.err prog
executes prog and sends any error output to the file prog.err.
If - is given in place of a file name, error output is redirected
to standard output. On systems on which standard output can be
redirected to a file, -e - causes both error output and standard
output go to that file. For example,
iconx -e - prog >prog.out
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redirects both error output and standard output to prog.out. The
use of - with -e is not available on the Atari ST or Macintosh.
3. Obsolete and Changed Features of Version 5
The original implementation of Version 5 supported both a com-
piler (iconc) and an interpreter (icont). Version 7.5 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 [5] is included with Version 7.5 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. Several error messages have been changed. Appendix B con-
tains a list of run-time error messages for Version 7.5.
4. Known Bugs in Version 7.5
+ The text of some translator error messages is incorrect
and may not correctly reflect the nature of errors.
+ The translator does not detect arithmetic overflow in
conversion of numeric literals. Very large numeric
literals may have incorrect values.
+ Integer overflow on multiplication and exponentiation may
not be detected during execution. Such overflow may
occur during type conversion.
+ Line numbers may be wrong in diagnostic messages related
to lines with continued quoted literals.
+ 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.
+ 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.
+ Stack overflow is checked using a heuristic that may not
always be effective.
+ If an expression such as
x := create expr
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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
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 expr
+ Stack overflow in a co-expression may not be detected and
may cause mysterious program malfunction.
5. Possible Differences Among Version 7.5 Implementations
A few aspects of the implementation of Version 7.5 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 7.5.
Some features of Icon, such as opening a pipe for I/O and the
system function, are not supported on all operating systems.
Acknowledgements
In addition to the authors of this report, Dave Gudeman and
Bill Mitchell made significant contributions to Version 7.5 of
Icon.
References
1. Griswold, Ralph E. and Madge T. Griswold. The Icon Program-
ming Language, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
1983.
2. Griswold, Ralph E. ICONT(1), manual page for UNIX
Programmer's Manual, Department of Computer Science, The Univer-
sity of Arizona. 1988.
3. Griswold, Ralph E. and Michael Novak. ``Programmer-Defined
Control Operations'', The Computer Journal, Vol. 26, No. 2 (May
1983).
4. Griswold, Ralph E. and Madge T. Griswold. The Implementation
of the Icon Programming Language, Princeton University Press,
Princeton, New Jersey. 1987.
5. Griswold, Ralph E. Personalized Interpreters for Version 7.5
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of Icon, Technical Report TR 88-7a, Department of Computer Sci-
ence, The University of Arizona. 1988.
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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. Except for ICONX, NOERRBUF, and
ICONCORE, the values assigned to these environment variables must
be numbers. Default values for regions vary from system to sys-
tem and are given in user manuals. Some implementations also
have other environment variables.
The environment variables are:
ICONX If set, this environment variable is used for the
location of iconx used to execute an icode file.
TRACE Specifies the initial value of &trace. The default
value is zero.
NOERRBUF If set, standard error output is not buffered.
ICONCORE If set, a core dump is produced in the case of
error termination.
MSTKSIZE Specifies the size in words of the main inter-
preter stack.
STRSIZE Specifies the initial size in bytes of the allo-
cated string region.
BLOCKSIZE Specifies the initial size in bytes of the allo-
cated block region. HEAPSIZE is a synonym for
BLOCKSIZE.
STATSIZE Specifies the initial size in bytes of the static
region in which co-expressions are allocated.
STATINCR Specifies the increment for expanding the static
region. The default increment is one-fourth the
initial size of the static region.
COEXPSIZE Specifies the size in words of co-expression
blocks.
QLSIZE Specifies the amount of space used for pointers to
strings during garbage collection. Used only on
implementations with fixed memory regions.
An inappropriate setting of an environment variable prevents
the program from starting.
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Appendix B - Run-Time Error Messages
A list of run-time error numbers and corresponding messages
follows. Some implementations have additional run-time errors.
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
120 cset or set expected
121 function not supported
122 set or table expected
123 invalid type
124 table 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 non-ascending arguments to detab/entab
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 input/output error
215 attempt to refresh &main
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301 interpreter stack overflow
302 C stack overflow
303 inadequate space for interpreter stack
304 inadequate space in qualifier list
305 inadequate space in static region
306 inadequate space in string region
307 inadequate space in block region
401 co-expressions not implemented
500 program malfunction
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mented
500 program malfunction
