Editing Icon (programming language) (section)

===SNOBOL===
The original [[SNOBOL]] effort, retroactively known as SNOBOL1, launched in the fall of 1962 at the [[Bell Labs]] Programming Research Studies Department.{{sfn|Griswold|1981|pp=601, 602}} The effort was a reaction to the frustrations of attempting to use the SCL language for polynomial formula manipulation, symbolic integration and studying [[Markov chain]]s. SCL, written by the department head Chester Lee, was both slow and had a low-level syntax that resulting in volumes of code for even simple projects. After briefly considering the COMIT language, Ivan Polonsky, Ralph Griswold and David Farber, all members of the six-person department, decided to write their own language to solve these problems.{{sfn|Griswold|1981|pp=602}}

The first versions were running on the [[IBM 7090]] in early 1963, and by the summer had been built out and was being used across Bell. This led almost immediately to SNOBOL2, which added a number of built-in functions, and the ability to link to external [[assembly language]] code. It was released in April 1964 and mostly used within Bell, but also saw some use at [[Project MAC]]. The introduction of system functions served mostly to indicate the need for user functions, which was the major feature of SNOBOL3, released in July 1964.{{sfn|Griswold|1981|pp=606}}

SNOBOL3's introduction corresponded with major changes within the Bell Labs computing department, including the addition of the new [[GE 645]] mainframe which would require a rewrite of SNOBOL. Instead, the team suggested writing a new version that would run on a [[virtual machine]], named SIL for SNOBOL Intermediate Language, allowing it to be easily ported to any sufficiently powerful platform. This proposal was accepted as SNOBOL4 in September 1965. By this time, plans for a significantly improved version of the language emerged in August 1966.{{sfn|Griswold|1981|pp=608}} Further work on the language continued throughout the rest of the 1960s, notably adding the [[associative array]] type in later version, which they referred to as a table.