| MATH-MATIC | |
| Paradigm: | imperative |
| 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[1] was produced in 1957 and a final manual[2] 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.
Expressions in MATH-MATIC could contain numeric exponents, including decimals and fractions, by way of a custom typewriter.[3]
MATH-MATIC programs could include inline assembler sections of ARITH-MATIC code and UNIVAC machine code.[4]
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 segments from UNISERVO tape as required. The compiler attempted to avoid splitting loops across segments.[5]
In proposing the collaboration with the 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.[6]
In contrast to Backus' FORTRAN, MATH-MATIC did not emphasise execution speed of compiled programs. The UNIVAC machines did not have 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. [7]
A sample MATH-MATIC program:[8]
. Jean E. Sammet. 1969. Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals. Prentice-Hall. 978-0-13-729988-1. 132,135–137.