SNOBOL 4+

Michael Davis

Information on the use of the version of SNOBOL4 known as SNOBOL 4+.

This is unofficial documentation for the version of the SNOBOL programming language published by Catspaw under the name SNOBOL4+. SNOBOL4+ is now available free, but the documentation from Catspaw is no longer available. This should be of help to anyone programming in the SNOBOL4+ language.

Catspaw also published a cut-down version of SNOBOL4+ called "Vanilla SNOBOL". The documentation for this is available free, and it covers most of the features of SNOBOL4+. It seemed to me pointless to repeat everything that is given there, so I have written this on the assumption that you have the Vanilla SNOBOL documentation, and this document carries on from there. Thus the Vanilla documentation and this document together constitute an almost complete documentation of the SNOBOL4+ programming language.

The following documentation is available for Vanilla SNOBOL: a SNOBOL 4 tutorial and the Vanilla SNOBOL reference manual, both of them excellent. They were written by Mark B. Emmer of Catspaw.

In the past there were two versions of this document available: a PDF version, and an HTML version. However, I have decided that the effort of maintaining and updating both versions is not worthwhile, so now the only version is the PDF one, at:

http://www.sachsdavis.clara.net/Snobol4Pdoc.pdf .

A SNOBOL group exists on Yahoo. It acts as a forum for information and opinions about SNOBOL. If you are interested, go to http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/snobol/ .

Permission is given to download and/or print a copy of this document for personal use. You are welcome to call attention to its existence and the URL where it may be obtained in any reasonable manner, including posting links to it on web sites. However, no permission is given to distribute this in any other way, including publishing copies of it on web sites, or handing out printed copies.