SNOBOL4BLOCKS(1)

NAME
snobol4blocks - SNOBOL4 BLOCKS extension

DESCRIPTION
The BLOCKS extension was developed by Jim Gimpel while at Bell Labs. A BLOCK is a data type that extends string concatenation to three dimensions.

Enabling the BLOCKS extension with the -BLOCKS control line (see snobol4ctrl(1)) or the -B command line option (see snobol4cmd(1)) alters the definition and precedence of percent and pound operators (see snobol4op(1)):

White space concatenates two BLOCKs in the horizontal dimension, the percent sign (%) concatenates two BLOCKs in the vertical dimension, and the pound sign (#) concatenates two BLOCKs in the dimension ``normal'' to the paper (over-strike).

The functions defined below are always present when CSNOBOL4 has been built with blocks enabled.

  Functions
For dir arguments: 0=``vertical'', 1=``horizontal'', 2=``normal''

BCHAR(b)
    Returns character representation of BLOCK b as an ARRAY of strings, dimensioned d x h, where d is the depth of the block and h is the height of the block (renamed from CHAR).

BOX(h,w,d)
    Returns a BLOCK of fill characters of height h, width w and depth d.

BLOCKSIZE(b,dir)
    Return INTEGER size of block b in direction dir.

CC(unit)
    Accessor function to change carriage control on I/O unit unit. If value is positive ASA (FORTRAN style) carriage control is output in column one (the asa2pdf program converts ASA format to PDF). If value is zero, no carriage control is output. If value is negative, ASCII carriage control characters are output (CSNOBOL4 extension).

DEF(b)
    Returns a BLOCK whose organization is deferred.

DEPTH(b)
    Returns INTEGER depth of BLOCK b.

DUP(b,dir,n)
    Duplicate BLOCK b n times in direction dir.

EJECT([i,...])
    Eject a page and return the null string. Optional unit numbers may be given to ``broadcast'' the form feed.

FIX(b)
    Returns a block whose organization is physical -- all positioning is done at this time, and no information on how the block was formed is retained.

FRONT(h,w)
    A special case of BOX(). Returns a BLOCK of fill characters of height h and width w and of depth zero.

HEIGHT(b)
    Returns INTEGER height of BLOCK b.

HOR(n)
    A special case of BOX(). Returns a block of fill characters whose width in n and height and depth zero.

HOR_REG(b)
    Accessor which returns or sets the horizontal registration of BLOCK b. Values: 'RIGHT', 'RIGHT', '' (centered).

IT(b)
    Returns a block whose organization is iterated orthogonally to parent.

LOC(n,b,dir)
    Returns the location of NODE n in BLOCK b in direction dir.

LRECL(unit)
    Undocumented!! Accessor for I/O unit record length???

MERGE(b1,b2,....)
    Returns a BLOCK whose organization is merged.

NODE(b)
    Returns a BLOCK whose organization is deferred.

NORM_REG(b)
    Accessor which returns or sets the normal plane registration of BLOCK b. Values: 'FRONT', 'REAR', '' (centered).

OVY(b1,b2)
    ``Overlay'' -- concatenation in the ``normal'' plane.

PRINT(b,[i1,....])
    Prints block to I/O unit 5. Additional unit numbers may be given to ``broadcast'' BLOCK b.

REP(b)
    Returns a BLOCK whose organization is replicated.

SER(b1,b2)
    ``Serial?'' -- concatenation in the vertical plane.

SLAB(b,dir,offset,length)
    Returns a physical block which is a cross-sectional cut of b, in direction dir

VER(n)
    A special case of BOX(). Returns a BLOCK of fill characters whose height is n.

VER_REG(b)
    Accessor which returns or sets the vertical registration of BLOCK b. Values: 'TOP', 'BOTTOM', '' (centered).

WIDTH(b)
    Returns INTEGER width of BLOCK b.

  Keywords

&FILL
    The fill character (defaults to space).

SEE ALSO
snobol4(1)

Blocks a new datatype for SNOBOL4, James F. Gimpel, Communications of the ACM, Volume 15 Issue 6, June 1972, Pages 438-447

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/79574/MTSVol09-SNOBOLInMTS-May1984.pdf
    Contains a manual for the BLOCKS extension.

http://urbanjost.altervista.org/LIBRARY/libCLI/EXE/ASA/asa_carriage_control.html
    A utility to convert ``ASA carriage control'' into PDF, complete with green stripes!

http://www.regressive.org/snobol4/blocks/