SNOBOL4BLOCKS(1)

📦
version 2.3.1 · 3 versions
, in fedora 43, fedora 44, opensuse-leap 16.0

💖 SNOBOL4BLOCKS 💖

okay bestie, buckle up, this is the snobol4blocks page from the CSNOBOL4 Manual and it's literally about making strings exist in 3D 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

snobol4blocks — the SNOBOL4 BLOCKS extension 🎀

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

The BLOCKS extension was developed by Jim Gimpel while he was at Bell Labs. A BLOCK is a data type that extends string concatenation to three dimensions 💅 like bestie, strings but they're architecture now.

Enabling the BLOCKS extension with the -BLOCKS control line (peep snobol4ctrl(1)) or the -B command line option (peep snobol4cmd(1)) alters the definition and precedence of the percent and pound operators (peep snobol4op(1)). so yeah, those two little guys change meaning, no cap 😭

Here's the vibe:

  • 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. periodt 💖

🧚 Functions 🧚

For dir arguments: 0=“vertical”, 1=“horizontal”, 2=“normal” — memorize this, it comes back like seventeen times 😭
  • 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). it's giving glow-up ✨
  • BOX(h,w,d) — Returns a BLOCK of fill characters of height h, width w and depth d. the classic box, iconic 💅
  • BLOCKSIZE(b,dir) — Return INTEGER size of block b in direction dir. numbers bestie 🔢
  • 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. it's keeping its options open 🙈
  • DEPTH(b) — Returns INTEGER depth of BLOCK b. 📏
  • DUP(b,dir,n) — Duplicate BLOCK b n times in direction dir. copy paste slay 👑
  • 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. it forgot its whole origin story 💀
  • FRONT(h,w) — A special case of BOX(). Returns a BLOCK of fill characters of height h and width w and of depth zero. flat bestie 🫶
  • 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). yes it says 'RIGHT' twice, that's canon, don't @ me 😭
  • 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??? 🫣 like girl even the manpage is confused
  • 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. the question mark is doing a lot of heavy lifting here bestie 🙈
  • SLAB(b,dir,offset,length) — Returns a physical block which is a cross-sectional cut of b, in direction dir. cross section like a lil science diagram 🧚
  • 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). default is a space, cute, minimalist, we love her 🎀

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

and that's the whole page bestie 💖 CSNOBOL4B 2.3.1, dated March 31, 2022 — go forth and build ur lil 3D string sculptures, u absolute main character 👑✨🦋

📦 where this page comes from