Editing Unicon (programming language)

{{short description|Programming language descended from Icon}}
{{primary sources|date=June 2018}}
{{Infobox programming language
 | name                   = Unicon
 | logo                   = 
 | file ext               = 
 | paradigm               = [[object-oriented programming|object-oriented]], [[procedural programming|procedural]]
 | released               = <!-- {{Start date|YYYY}} -->
 | designer               = Clint Jeffery
 | developer              = 
 | latest release version = 
 | latest release date    = <!-- {{start date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} -->
 | latest preview version = 
 | latest preview date    = <!-- {{start date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} -->
 | typing                 = 
 | implementations        = 
 | dialects               = 
 | influenced by          = [[Icon programming language|Icon]]
 | influenced             = 
 | operating system       = [[Cross-platform]]: [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]], [[Unix]]
 | license                = [[GNU General Public License]]
 | website                = {{url|http://unicon.sourceforge.net/}}
 | wikibooks              = 
}}
'''Unicon''' is a [[programming language]] designed by American computer scientist Clint Jeffery with collaborators including Shamim Mohamed, Jafar Al Gharaibeh, Robert Parlett and others. Unicon descended from [[Icon programming language|Icon]] and a preprocessor for Icon called [[IDOL (programming language)|IDOL]]. Compared with Icon, Unicon offers better access to the [[operating system]] as well as support for [[object-oriented programming]]. Unicon began life as a merger of three popular Icon extensions: an OO preprocessor named Idol, a [[POSIX]] filesystem and networking interface, and an [[Open Database Connectivity|ODBC]] facility. The name is shorthand for "Unified Extended Dialect of Icon."

== Features ==
Compared with Icon, many of the new features of Unicon are extensions to the I/O and system interface, to complement Icon's core control and data structures. Rather than providing lower-level APIs as-is from C, Unicon implements higher level and easier to use facilities, enabling rapid development of graphic- and network-intensive applications in addition to Icon's core strengths in text and file processing.

== Feature list ==
* Classes and packages
*[[Exception handling|Exceptions]] as a contributed class library - see mailing list
* Loadable child programs
* Monitoring of child programs
* Dynamic loading of C modules (some platforms)
* [[Multiple inheritance]], with novel<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2420091 |title=Closure-Based Inheritance and Inheritance Cycles in Idol |date=August 1998 |author=Clinton Jeffery |via=[[ResearchGate]]}}</ref> semantics
* ODBC database access<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://unicon.org/utr/utr1/utr1.htm|title = Unicon ODBC Interface}}</ref>
* dbm files can be used as associative arrays
* Posix system interface
* 3D graphics<ref>{{cite web| url=http://unicon.org/utr/utr9c.pdf  | title=Unicon 3D Graphics - User's Guide and Reference Manual | access-date=2024-01-27}}</ref>
* True concurrency (on platforms supporting Posix threads)<ref>{{cite web| url=http://unicon.org/utr/utr14.pdf | title=Unicon Threads - User's Guide and Reference Manual | access-date=2024-01-27}}</ref>

When run as a graphical IDE, the Unicon program ui.exe continues to offer links to Icon help.

The official Unicon programming book in PDF format<ref>{{cite web| url=http://unicon.org/book/ub.pdf | title=Programming with Unicon | access-date=2024-01-27}}</ref> is a popular way to learn Unicon. The book includes an introduction to object-oriented development as well as [[Unified Modeling Language|UML]]. It includes useful chapters on topics such as the use of Unicon for CGI. Recent additions to Unicon include true [[concurrent computing|concurrency]].

== Unicode ==
Unicon is not yet [[Unicode]]-compliant. There are opportunities posted at a help-wanted page.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://unicon.org/helpwanted.html|title=Help Wanted!}}</ref>

==Example code==
<syntaxhighlight lang="unicon">
procedure main()
	w := open("test UNICON window", "g")
	write(w, "Hello, World!")
	read(w)
	close(w)
end
</syntaxhighlight>

==See also==
* [[REBOL|Rebol]], a similar web-oriented expression-based language without the use of keywords
* [[Curl (programming language)|Curl]], multi-paradigm web content functional language which is also expression-based but only for client-side
* [[Coroutine]]
* [[Generator (computer science)|Generators]]
* [[Continuation]]

==References==
{{Reflist|1}}

==External links==
* [http://www.unicon.org/ Unicon]
* {{SourceForge|unicon}}
* [http://unicon.org/book/ Unicon Programming book]
* [http://www.drones.com/unicon/ Posix Interface for Unicon ]
* [http://www.cs.nmsu.edu/~sgaikaiw/Thesis.pdf ADAPTING SNOBOL-STYLE PATTERNS TO UNICON]
* [http://www2.cs.arizona.edu/icon/jcon/ Java version of Icon]
* [http://99-bottles-of-beer.net/language-unicon-1129.html Unicon at 99-bottles] 
* [https://literateprograms.org Literate programs]

[[Category:Icon programming language family]]
[[Category:Pattern matching programming languages]]
[[Category:Text-oriented programming languages]]
[[Category:SNOBOL programming language family]]