Editing MATH-MATIC

{{Infobox programming language
| name = MATH-MATIC
| paradigm = [[imperative programming|imperative]]
| year = {{start-date|1957}}
| designer = [[Remington Rand]]
| influenced_by = [[FLOW-MATIC]]
| influenced = [[UNICODE (programming language)]]
| platform = [[UNIVAC I]], [[UNIVAC II]]
}}

'''MATH-MATIC''' is the marketing name for the AT-3 (Algebraic Translator 3) [[compiler]], an early [[programming language]] for the [[UNIVAC I]] and [[UNIVAC II]].

MATH-MATIC was written beginning around 1955 by a team led by [[Charles Katz]] under the direction of [[Grace Hopper]]. A preliminary manual<ref>Ash (1957)</ref> was produced in 1957 and a final manual<ref>Univac (1958)</ref> the following year.

Syntactically, MATH-MATIC was similar to Univac's contemporaneous business-oriented language, [[FLOW-MATIC]], differing in providing algebraic-style expressions and floating-point arithmetic, and arrays rather than record structures.

== Notable features ==

Expressions in MATH-MATIC could contain numeric exponents, including decimals and fractions, by way of a custom typewriter.<ref>Sammet (1969) p.&nbsp;135</ref>

MATH-MATIC programs could include [[inline assembler]] sections of [[ARITH-MATIC]] code and [[UNIVAC I|UNIVAC]] machine code.<ref>Sammet (1969) p.&nbsp;137</ref>

The [[UNIVAC I]] had only 1000 words of memory, and the successor [[UNIVAC II]] as little as 2000. MATH-MATIC allowed for larger programs, automatically generating code to read [[Overlay (programming)|overlay]] segments from [[UNISERVO]] tape as required. The compiler attempted to avoid splitting loops across segments.<ref>Sammet (1969) p.&nbsp;137</ref>

== Influence ==

In proposing the collaboration with the [[Association for Computing Machinery|ACM]] that led to [[ALGOL 58]], the [[Gesellschaft für Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik]] wrote that it considered MATH-MATIC the closest available language to its own proposal.<ref>Bemer (1969) p.&nbsp;161</ref>

In contrast to [[John Backus|Backus']] [[Fortran|FORTRAN]], MATH-MATIC did not emphasise execution speed of compiled programs. The UNIVAC machines did not have [[floating point|floating-point]] hardware, and MATH-MATIC was translated via A-3 ([[ARITH-MATIC]]) pseudo-assembler code rather than directly to UNIVAC machine code, limiting its usefulness. <ref>Knuth (1976) p.&nbsp;90</ref>

== MATH-MATIC Sample program ==

A sample MATH-MATIC program:<ref>Univac (1958) p. 8</ref>

<!-- Note to editors: MATH-MATIC had specific and rigid rules for placement of space characters. The <pre> or <syntaxhighlight> tags do not work here due to the need for superscripts. Please use {{pre}}. -->
{{pre|1=
(2)  TYPE-IN ALPHA . 
(2A) READ A B C SERVO 4 STORAGE A IF SENTINEL JUMP TO SENTENCE 8 . 
(3)  READ D F SERVO 5 . 
(4)  VARY Y 1 (0.1) 3 SENTENCE 5 THRU 6 . 
(5)  X1 = (7*10<sup>3</sup>*Y*A*SIN ALPHA)<sup>3</sup> / (B POW D+C POW E) . 
(6)  WRITE AND EDIT A Y D E X1 SERVO 6 . 
(7)  JUMP TO SENTENCE 2A . 
(8)  CLOSE-INPUT AND REWIND SENTENCE 3 . 
(9)  CLOSE-OUTPUT SENTENCE 6 . 
(10) READ F G H N SERVO 4 STORAGE A IF SENTINEL JUMP TO SENTENCE 20 . 
(11) EXECUTE SENTENCE 3 . 
(12) X2 = (3 ROOT (E-G)+LOG (D+N)) / (F<sup>2.6</sup>*EXP H) . 
(13) WRITE EDIT F D F X2 SERVO 6 . 
(16) JUMP TO SENTENCE 10 . 
(20) STOP . 
}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}

==References==

* {{cite tech report
|first1=R.
|last1=Ash
|first2=E.
|last2=Broadwin
|first3=V.
|last3=Della Valle
|first4=M.
|last4=Greene
|first5=A.
|last5=Jenny
|first6=C.
|last6=Katz
|authorlink6=Charles Katz
|first7=L.
|last7=Yu
|title=Preliminary Manual for MATH-MATIC and ARITH-MATIC Systems for Algebraic Translation and Compilation for UNIVAC I and II
|date=1957-04-19
|publisher=Remington Rand Univac
|publication-place=Philadelphia
|url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Knuth_Don_X4100/PDF_index/k-7-pdf/k-7-u2310-UNIVAC-MATH-MATIC-ARITH-MATIC.pdf
|format=PDF
|access-date=2016-03-19
|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141226040230/http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Knuth_Don_X4100/PDF_index/k-7-pdf/k-7-u2310-UNIVAC-MATH-MATIC-ARITH-MATIC.pdf
|archivedate=2014-12-26
|url-status=dead
}}

* {{citation
|first=Robert W.|last=Bemer|authorlink=Bob Bemer
|title=A Politico-Social History of Algol (With a Chronology in the Form of a Log Book)
|date=1969
|url=http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/ALGOL/paper/Bemer-Politico_Social_History_of_Algol.pdf
|access-date=2016-03-20
}}

* {{cite tech report
|first1=Donald|last1=Knuth|authorlink1=Donald Knuth
|first2=Luis|last2=Trabb Pardo
|title=The Early Development of Programming Languages
|date=August 1976
|publisher=Computer Science Department, School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University
|url=https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA032123
|access-date=2016-03-19
}}

* {{cite book
|last=Sammet|first=Jean|authorlink=Jean E. Sammet
|date=1969
|title=Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals
|publisher=Prentice-Hall
|isbn=978-0-13-729988-1
|pages=132,135–137
}}

* {{cite tech report
|title=Univac MATH-MATIC Programming System
|date=1958
|publisher=Remington Rand Univac
|url=http://bitsavers.org/pdf/univac/univac2/U-1568_MATH-MATIC_PgmgSys_1958.pdf
|format=PDF
|access-date=2016-03-19
}}

* {{cite web
|url=http://hopl.info/showlanguage.prx?exp=435
|title=MATH-MATIC — Mathematically oriented autocode (Computer Language)
|website=Online Historical Encyclopaedia of Programming Languages
|access-date=2016-03-20
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160402235828/http://hopl.info/showlanguage.prx?exp=435
|archive-date=2016-04-02
|url-status=dead
}}

* {{cite web
|url=http://hopl.info/showlanguage.prx?exp=29
|title=UNICODE — UNIVAC hybrid of FORTRAN and MATH-MATIC
|website=Online Historical Encyclopaedia of Programming Languages
|access-date=2016-03-20
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403013141/http://hopl.info/showlanguage.prx?exp=29
|archive-date=2016-04-03
|url-status=dead
}}

[[Category:Numerical programming languages]]
[[Category:Programming languages]]
[[Category:Programming languages created in 1957]]