The original ABC language, Python's predecessor (1991)
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Re: The original ABC language, Python's predecessor (1991)
#2Nice find. This looks like the best introduction to the language in the repo: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gvanrossum/abc-unix/refs/h...
Re: The original ABC language, Python's predecessor (1991)
#3Interesting, seems like Python is a strict improvement over ABC though many things are very similar. The PUT ... IN ... and INSERT ... IN ... syntax looks quite clunky and un-composable, at least the examples never do more than one (high-level) operation per line. Also, I guess GvR's English wasn't that good at the time - it should be have been INTO, right?
Re: The original ABC language, Python's predecessor (1991)
#4Interesting, seems like Python is a strict improvement over ABC though many things are very similar. The PUT ... IN ... and INSERT ... IN ... syntax looks quite clunky and un-composable, at least the examples never do more than one (high-level) operation per line. Also, I guess GvR's English wasn't that good at the time - it should be have been INTO, right?
"in" vs "into" is often just a matter of how casually you're speaking.
The same sort of syntax was used in HyperTalk (with "into"): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperTalk#Description I wouldn't be surprised to hear of it in AppleScript, either, although I can't recall.
Re: The original ABC language, Python's predecessor (1991)
#5Extremely cool. Thanks, GvR.
For my own language design I've wanted to introduce some of this ABC syntax back into Python. Mainly for unpacking data and doing index/slice assignments; a lot of beginners seem to get tripped up because assignments in Python use the same syntax as mutations, so maybe it's better to write e.g. `a['b'] = c` like `set b = c in a`, or `update a with {'b': c}`, or ... who knows, exactly.
Re: The original ABC language, Python's predecessor (1991)
#6Where is the GIL in this?
Re: The original ABC language, Python's predecessor (1991)
#7The year says 91, but it looks like it was recently pushed to github, which is a notable event on its own.
Re: The original ABC language, Python's predecessor (1991)
#8Nice find. This looks like the best introduction to the language in the repo: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gvanrossum/abc-unix/refs/h...
Wow 2 * 1000 without rounding errors, 40 years ago this must have been super impressive, since I find that quite a feat of today's python.
Re: The original ABC language, Python's predecessor (1991)
#9Nice find. This looks like the best introduction to the language in the repo: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gvanrossum/abc-unix/refs/h...
Wow 2 * 1000 without rounding errors, 40 years ago this must have been super impressive, since I find that quite a feat of today's python.
2 * 1000 is 2000 ;)
I think you meant 2**1000
the syntax for formatting ate your star https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc
Re: The original ABC language, Python's predecessor (1991)
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow 2 * 1000 without rounding errors, 40 years ago this must have been super impressive, since I find that quite a feat of today's python.
2 * 1000 is 2000 ;) I think you meant 2**1000 the syntax for formatting ate your star https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc
Oh that's why i did not get any upvotes /i