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BABBAGE - The language of the Future
There are few things in this business that are more fun than desgning a new
computer language, and the very latest is Ada - The Department of Defense's new
supertoy. Ada, as you know, has been designed to replace outmoded and obsolete
languages such as COBOL and FORTRAN.
The problem is that this cycle takes 20 to 30 years and doesn't start until
we're really convinced present languages are no good. We can short-circuit this
process by starting on Ada's replacement right now. Then, by the time we decide
Ada is obsolete, its replacement will be ready.
The new generation of language designers has taken to naming its brainchildren
after real people rather than resorting to the usual acronyms. Pascal is named
after the first person to build a calculating machine and Ada is named after the
first computer programmer. As our namesake, we chose Charles Babbage, who died
in poverty while trying to finish building the first computer. The new language
is thus named after the first systems designer to go over budget and behind
schedule.
Babbage is based on language elements that were discovered after the design of
Ada was completed. For instance, C.A.R. Hoare, in his 1980 ACM Turing Award
lecture, told of two ways of constructing a software design: "One way is to
make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies and the other way is
to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies." The designers
of Babbage have chosen a third alternative - a language that has only obvious
deficiencies. Babbage programs are so unreliable that maintenance can begin
before system integration is completed. This guarantees a steady increase in
the programming job marketplace.
Like Pascal, Ada uses "strong typing" to avoid errors caused by mixing data
types. The designers of Babbage advocate "good typing" to avoid errors caused
by misspelling the words in your program. Later versions of Babbage will also
allow "touch typing," which will fill a long-felt need.
A hotly contested issue among language designers is the method for passing
parameters to subfunctions. Some advocate "call by name," and others prefer
"call by value." Babbage uses a new method - "call by telephone." This is
especially effective for long-distance parameter passing.
Ada stresses the concept of software portability. Babbage encourages hardware
portability. After all, what good is a computer if you can't take it with you?
It's a good sign if your language is sponsored by the government. COBOL had
government backing, and Ada is being funded by the Department of Defense. After
much negotiation, the Department of Sanitation has agreed to sponsor Babbage.
No subsets of Ada are allowed. Babbage is just the opposite. None of Babbage
is defined except its extensibility - each user must define his own version. To
end the debate of large languages versus small, babbage allows each user to make
the language any size he wants. Babbage is the ideal language for the "me"
generation. The examples that follow will give you some idea of what Babbage
looks like.
Structured languages banned GOTOs and multiway conditional branches by
replacing them with the simpler IF-THEN-ELSE structure. Babbage has a number of
new conditional statements that act like termites in the structure of your
program:
WHAT IF Used in simulation languages. Branches before evaluating test
conditions.
OR ELSE Conditional threat, as in: "Add these two numbers OR ELSE!"
WHY NOT? Executes the code that follows in a devil-may-care fashion.
WHO ELSE? Used for polling during I/O operations.
ELSEWHERE This is where your program really is when you think it's here.
GOING GOING GONE For writing unstructured programs. Takes a random branch
to another program. Does the work of 10 GOTOs.
For years, programming languages have used "FOR", "DO UNTIL", "DO WHILE", etc.
to mean "LOOP". Continuing with this trend, Babbage offers the following loop
statements:
DON'T DO WHILE NOT This loop is not executed if the test condition is not
false (or if it's Friday afternoon).
DIDN'T DO The loop executes once and hides all traces.
CAN'T DO The loop is pooped.
WON'T DO The CPU halts because it doesn't like the code inside
the loop. Execution can be resumed by typing "May I" at
the console.
MIGHT DO Depends on how the CPU is feeling. Executed if the CPU
is "up", and not executed if the CPU is "down" or if its
feelings have been hurt.
DO UNTO OTHERS Used to write the main loop for timesharing systems so
that they will antagonize the users in a uniform manner.
DO-WAH Used to write timing loops for computer-generated music
(Rag timing).
Every self-respecting language has a case statement to implement multiway
branching. ALGOL offers an indexed case statement and Pascal has a labeled case
statement. Not much of a choice. Babbage offers a variety of interesting case
statements:
The JUST-IN-CASE Statement For handling afterthoughts and fudge factors.
Allows you to multiply by zero to correct for accidentally dividing by zero.
The BRIEF CASE Statement To encourage portable software.
The OPEN-AND-SHUT CASE Statement - No proof of correctness is necessary with
this one.
The IN-ANY-CASE Statement This one always works.
The HOPELESS CASE Statement This one never works.
The BASKET CASE Statement A really hopeless case.
The Babbage Language Design Group is continously evaluating new features that
will keep its users from reaching any level of effectiveness. For instance,
Babbage's designers are now considering the ALMOST EQUALS sign, used for
comparing two floating-point numbers. This new feature "takes the worry out of
being close".
No language, no matter how bad, can stand on its own. We need a really
state-of-the-art operating system to support Babbage. After trying several
commercial systems, we decided to write a "virtual" operating system. Everybody
has a virtual memory operating system so we decided to try something a little
different. Our new operating system is called the Virtual Time Operating System
(VTOS). While virtual memory systems make the computer's memory the virtual
resource, VTOS does the same thing with CPU processing time.
The result is that the computer can run an unlimited number of jobs at the
same time. Like the virtual memory system, which actually keeps part of memory
on disk, VTOS has to play tricks to achieve its goals. Although all of your
jobs seem to be running right now, some of them are actually running next week.
As you can see, Babbage is still in its infancy. The Santa Barbara Chapter of
the Babbage Language Design Group is seeking suggestions for this powerful new
language and as the sole member of this sub-group (all applications for free
membership stating your name, address, and phone number will be accepted), I
call on the computing community for help in making this dream a reality.
Steve Parker
Co-SYSOP
Computer Plaza RBBS
P.S. Suggestions and membership applications can be sent to:
Steve Parker
3463 State Street Suite 301
Santa Barbara, CA 93105
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