Harold V. McIntosh

A programming language is described which is applicable to problems conveniently described by transformation rules. By this is meant that patterns may be prescribed, each being associated with a skeleton, so that a series of such pairs may be searched until a pattern is found which matches an expression to be transformed. The conditions for a match are governed by a code which also allows subexpressions to be identified and eventually substituted into the corresponding skeleton. The primitive patterns and primitive skeletons are described, as well as the principles which allow their elaboration into more complicated patterns and skeletons. The advantages of the language are that it allows one to apply transformation rules to lists and arrays as easily as strings, that both patterns and skeletons may be defined recursively, and that as a consequence programs may be stated quite concisely.