SYMPLE, an icon-based computer language
Erwind Earl Blount · 1988
This paper will describe an icon-based computer language called SYMPLE.SYMPLE stand for mbolic Bogramming Language and is the end result of the continuing evolution of the icon as an information interface.Today's computer languages use the syntactical representation of bits as their root programming construct and are limited to the use of unique data structures in representing aggregate information (e.g., arrays, unions, lied lists).The conception of syntactical linearity in the English language (e.g., characters to build a word, words to build a sentence, sentences to build a paragraph, etc.) have carried over to computer languages resulting in the 'Van Neuman" bottleneck of serial processing (one step at a time operations).SYh4PLE conceptually and functionally avoids the serial bottleneck by handling information, and the processes regarding that information as one entity (the Icon).SYMPLE extends icon use from its present graphics symbolism to a fully interactive programming methodology.SYMPLE treats the icon as a piece of code (i.e., functions, subroutines, whole programs) or a graphics symbol, a communications routine, an operating systems call, ad infinitum.