Flexible abbreviation of words in a computer language
R. G. Loomis, J. Rubin · Communications of the ACM · 1963
An increasing number of computer programs are designed to accept and translate a symbolic, English-like language which facilitates communication between the user and the computer. A common feature of such programs is a pre-determined vocabulary of expressions for specifying the input to the program. This note describes a generalized technique for permitting flexible abbreviation of such expressions in order to further simplify the task of writing source programs.