A virtual-variable name-specification operator for high level languages
Alvin J. Surkan · 1974
In the absence of an execute or unquote feature, a computer language may be enhanced by inventing a specify function extension which during execution, assigns program-generated virtual-variable names with the storing of arrays. In this note, an APL prototype of such an extension of the specify operator is described and demonstrated. The legal domain of virtual-variable names include all values within the normal domain of the language environment and all literal strings of alphabetic and/or numeric characters with a maximum length set by the size of a double word. The extended specify operation is useful in programs for symbolic manipulation and in sparce matrix problems for elements with varying and unpredictable storage requirements.