User talk:209.226.179.186

2006-01-07T00:22:11Z

209.226.179.186:

Hey, I'm talking, and I'm a user, so that makes this my user talk...

Turing

2006-01-07T00:20:52Z

209.226.179.186: /* Version History */

Turing is an interpreted pseudo-[[Programming Language]] developed by [[Holt Software Associates]] in 1982. It is intentionally similar to [[Pascal]] in syntax.

==History==

The primary developers of the Turing language were [[Ric Holt]] and [[James Cordy]], although it was later maintained by a larger group of people. Ric and James wrote it as an extension of the [[Euclid Programming Language]], an earlier project they had worked on at the University of Toronto. The original Turing variant was written largely to replace [[Pascal]] in Canadian high schools and universities, a goal that it has achieved quite admirably. Although originally written as a DOS-only compiler, the language has evolved over time, spreading to other platforms, and including an [[Object-oriented]] model. In 2001, Turing became "Object-Oriented Turing," and this is the version that largely dominates Canadian high-school classrooms today.

==Features==

Turing is first and foremost a learning language, so it is lacking some of the features present in most 'modern' languages. Although Turing [[interpreters]] exist, there is no real Turing [[compiler]]. The one built into the standard Turing editor actually takes the Turing code and converts it to a machine-dependent "[[pseudo-code]]", and then compiles that together with a stand-alone execution environment. This means that whenever a program is compiled, because of the inclusion of the execution environment, even a simple "Hello, World" program will take up approximately 700kb of disk space.

However, for first-time programmers, it is a useful language. It contains all the essential programming features -- Input/Output, Control Flow, Iteration, graphics, etc. It strives to make common tasks (such as recieving keyboard input) as simple as possible, so that the student can focus on the logic of the program rather than details about the implementation. Most interestingly, it also offers direct access to the PC Parallel port, making it an ideal choice for high-school level Computer Engineering courses.

==Version History==

The latest version of Turing, according to Holt Software Associates, is 4.0.4c. However, there is a 4.0.4d (4.0.5) and 4.poop version available.

==External Links==
*[http://www.holtsoft.com/turing/ Turing home page]

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User talk:209.226.179.186

Turing