Snobol

Hello World in SNOBOL

Every programming journey starts with Hello World. Let’s write our first SNOBOL program and get a glimpse of this pioneering pattern-matching language from Bell Labs.

The Code

Create a file …

Variables and Types in SNOBOL

SNOBOL4 has one of the most permissive type systems of any classic language. There are no type declarations, no var or let keywords, and no fixed types attached to names — a variable simply becomes …

Operators in SNOBOL

Operators are how you combine values into expressions. In most languages this is straightforward: + adds, == compares, && joins booleans. SNOBOL takes a different path that reflects its …

Control Flow in SNOBOL

Most languages give you if, else, for, and while as dedicated keywords. SNOBOL has none of them. Instead, control flow grows out of a single idea that runs through the entire language: every statement …