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From: ed@iitmax.IIT.EDU (Ed Federmeyer)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.icon
Subject: Re: What are ICONS?
Keywords: icon
Message-ID: <4495@iitmax.IIT.EDU>
Date: 9 Nov 90 22:39:30 GMT
References: <2219@ac.dal.ca> <5726@alpha.cam.nist.gov>
Reply-To: ed@iitmax.iit.edu (Ed Federmeyer)
Organization: Illinois Institute of Technology
Lines: 21

In article <5726@alpha.cam.nist.gov> koontz@cam.nist.gov (John E. Koontz X5180) writes:
> [what does Icon mean?]
>1) In the context of this newsgroup it is a programming language called
>   Icon.  Icon is a descendent of SNOBOL, but emphasizes the succeed/fail
>   attribute of programming language statements in SNOBOL, rather than
>   the pattern matching application per se.  

One thing I've been wondering, and I've not seen it in the forward to the
Icon book, is WHY is the language named "Icon"??  By the way, as long
as I'm asking, does anyone know how SNOBOL and SPITBOL get thier names...

You know, almost _every_ FORTRAN book mentions that its name comes from
FORmula TRANslation, or BASIC is Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code
(or whatever) :-)

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