$Id: README,v 1.75 2012/01/20 04:11:57 phil Exp $

1.4.1 release of ``The Macro Implementation of SNOBOL4 in C'' (CSNOBOL4)

This is a free port of the original SIL (SNOBOL4 Implementation
Language) "macro" version of SNOBOL4 (developed at Bell Labs) with the
`C' language as a target.

SNOBOL4, while known primarily as a string language excels at any task
involving symbolic manipulations.  It provides dynamic typing, garbage
collection, user data types, on the fly compilation.  It's primary
weakness is it's simple syntax, and lack of "structured programming"
and "object oriented" constructs.

However some consider the spareness of SNOBOL4 syntax a strength when
compared to some "modern" agglomerations such as Perl.

The latest release can be found at http://www.snobol4.org

****************************************************************

Copyright (c) 1993-2012, Philip L. Budne
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
met:

Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
"AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT
OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

****************************************************************

Documentation;

For a good SNOBOL4 tutorial look at the Catspaw SNOBOL4 tutorial;
    http://www.snobol4.org/doc/burks/tutorial/contents.htm

Also useful are the Catspaw Vanilla SNOBOL4 manual;
    http://www.snobol4.org/doc/burks/manual/contents.htm

and the Catspaw SPITBOL manual
    ftp://ftp.snobol4.com/spitman.pdf

INSTALL
	Information on building and installing CSNOBOL4

README
	This file

CHANGES
	Important changes since last release

doc/snobol4.0
	text man page for SNOBOL4.
	describes changes from the SNOBOL4 reference ("green book").

doc/sdb.0
	text man page for SNOBOL4 debugger.

doc/snobol4dbm.0
	text man page for SNOBOL4 DBM library routines

doc/snobol4random.0
	text man page for SNOBOL4 random number support

doc/snobol4readline.0
	text man page for SNOBOL4 readline support

doc/snobol4tcl.0
	text man page for SNOBOL4 Tcl/Tk support

doc/snobol4time.0
	text man page for SNOBOL4 time support

doc/snolib.3
	man page for SNOBOL4 library routines

doc/porting.txt
	information on porting to a new system,
	particularly the usage of Makefile variables and m4 macros.

TODO.soon
	current top priority tasks (hopefully small in any release)

TODO
	older identified tasks / wish list.

Mark Emmer has made his old 16-bit DOS Macro SNOBOL4 based product
"SNOBOL4+" available for free.  See http://www.snobol4.com and
ftp://ftp.snobol4.com for it, many demo programs, SNOBOL4 language
documentation, and ordering information for books & products from
Catspaw!

There is a mailing list for SNOBOL4 on Yahoo Groups:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/snobol/

Acknowledgments;

	First and foremost, I would like to thank Ralph Griswold, for
	all his invaluable help and time digging up old documentation!
	(as well as his work of 30 years ago, designing and
	implementing the language)!

	I would also never have succeeded without the help of Mark
	Emmer of Catspaw and his excellent SPARC SPITBOL product!!

	The contributions of source code by Mark Emmer (SNOBOL4+) and
	Viktors Berstis (Minnesota SNOBOL4) have allowed me to advance
	the state of CSNOBOL4 in ways that would have been otherwise
	impossible.

The following have also provided help, encouragement, support, input,
historical background, testing, fixes, testing, money, etc
(in chronological order);

	Bill Henneman
	Andrew Koenig
	Doug McIlroy
	Robert Dewar
	Alan Martin
	Jerry Leichter
	Scott Marovich
	Jonathan Chandross
	Randolph J. Herber
	Jules Gilbert
	Phillip Lee Thomas
	Martin D. Waller
	Burkhard Meissner
	John McHugh
	Chrystopher Nehaniv
	Arne Larsson
	Rik Faith
	Keith Waclena
	Steve Kibler
	Peter-Arno Coppen
	David J. Birnbaum
	Yuli Barcohen
	Stephen Del Rea
	David Feustel
	Laurence Battin
	John Refling
	Greg White
	Russ Urquhart
	Jan Bernard
	Chris Anderson
	Rafal M. Sulejman
	Ed Quillen
	Robin H. Johnson
	Guido Milanese
	David Stodolsky
	Robin Kay
	Sudarshan Gaikaiwari
	Bruce Axtens
	Dani Richard
	Meir Livneh
	Mark Laster
	Michael Richter
	James McKelvey
	Chap Harrison
	Robert Shanley
	Howard Modell
	Ron Hochsprung
	Steven Brenton
	Anonymous

If you are interested in getting mailings about new releases, send me
a timing report.  I'm always interested in knowing what people are
using SNOBOL4 for!

Phil Budne <phil@ultimate.com>
