This page (revision-32) was last changed on 03-Feb-2023 15:21 by Maury Markowitz 

This page was created on 07-Aug-2017 01:38 by Roland B. Wassenberg

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WSFN
WSFN

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At line 2 changed one line
WSFN (Which Stands for Nothing) is a small programming language originally created by Li-Chen Wang (author of Tiny BASIC) as a way to send commands to a small robot. It was originally published in Dr. Dobb's Journal in September 1977. When he lost access to the robot, it was replaced by a turtle graphics system instead.
Harry Stewart, 1981
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The language is similar to [PILOT] in general concept, using single-letter commands who's primary purpose is to cause the turtle to move and create drawings. In contrast, WSFN allows the construction of more complex macros using parenthesis, which can then be combined into larger programs. WSFN programs can quickly become unreadable in spite of their single-letters and relatively simple code.
!Background
WSFN (Which Stands for Nothing) is a "tiny" programming language created by Li-Chen Wang (author of Tiny BASIC) as a way to send commands to a small robot. It was originally published in Dr. Dobb's Journal in September 1977, with the robot represented on-screen using what would today be known as turtle graphics.
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Extended WSFN was an implementation created for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers by Harry B. Stewart and published by the Atari Program Exchange (APX) in 1981. The main differences were to add another set of commands to provide access to some of the Atari platform's capabilities, notably graphics, color, sound and joystick support. The language was otherwise similar to the original.
The language is similar to [PILOT] in concept, using single-letter commands who's primary purpose is to cause the turtle to move and create drawings. In contrast to PILOT, WSFN allows the construction of more complex macros using parenthesis, which can then be combined into larger programs. WSFN programs can quickly become unreadable in spite of their single-letters and relatively short list of features.
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A unique feature of the language is that the keyboard is active at all times, and users can interrupt programs as they run. For instance, if one makes a macro to draw an arc on the screen and names it "A", typing A will begin the drawing of the arc, but the user can press A in the middle of the process to draw a new arc at the current location, and so on. This makes all programs interactive without any specific code like an event loop.
Extended WSFN was an implementation created for the Atari 8-bit family by Harry Stewart and published by the Atari Program Exchange (APX) in 1981. The main differences were to add another set of commands to provide access to some of the Atari platform's capabilities, notably graphics, color, sound and joystick support. The language was otherwise similar to the original, although some of the command letters changed to make room for new commands.
''Editor's note:'' One clearly missing feature is the ability to define macros that run on events other than the keyboard. If one could define macros that were triggered by the joystick, perhaps by defining the macro with a specific name like "!UP", one could write joystick-based drawing programs in a few lines of code.
This page (revision-32) was last changed on 03-Feb-2023 15:21 by Maury Markowitz  Top