COMAL

COMAL

Paradigm(s)	structured
Appeared in	1973
Designed by	Benedict Løfstedt and Børge R. Christensen
Typing discipline	strong
Influenced by	BASIC, Pascal

COMAL (Common Algorithmic Language) is a computer programming language developed in Denmark by Benedict Løfstedt and Børge R. Christensen in 1973.

The "COMAL 80 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE REPORT" contains the formal definition of the language.

Design

COMAL was actually created as a mixture of the prevalent educational programming languages of the time, BASIC and Pascal, and was meant to introduce structured programming elements in an environment where BASIC would normally be used.

History

In the early 1980s, Apple Computer won a contract to supply Apple II computers running CP/M and COMAL to Irish secondary schools.

In 1990 Thomas Lundy and Rory O'Sullivan produced the definitive text on COMAL Programming.^{[citation needed]} They matched and compared COMAL with BBC Structured Basic.

Availability

COMAL is available for:

• BBC Micro
• Commodore PET (public domain software)
• Commodore 64 (public domain software)
• Commodore 128
• Amiga
• Compis
• Scandis
• CP/M
• IBM PC
• Tiki 100
• ZX Spectrum
• Mac OS X
• Grundy NewBrain

Examples

Conditions:

IF condition THEN
  instructions
ENDIF

Loops:

FOR number:= 1 TO 1000 DO   
 PRINT number
ENDFOR

Print statements with variables:

INPUT "Whats your favourite number..." :nmr%
CLS
PRINT "Your favourite number is " ; nmr%

"Hello, world!"

10 PAGE
20 FOR number:= 1 TO 10 DO
30  PRINT "HELLO, WORLD!"
40 ENDFOR
50 END " "

External links

• OpenComal – an Open Source implementation of COMAL for UNIX, MS-DOS and Windows
• MacharSoft
• Description of COMAL, versions, and characteristics
• Annotated Bibliography of the COMAL language
• Implementation of COMAL for Mac OS X "Comal 2"
• COMAL ARCHIVES FOR THE CBM / PET and THE C64