PEARL programming language
Encyclopedia
PEARL, or Process and Experiment Automation Realtime Language, is a computer
programming language
designed for multitasking
and real-time
programming. Being a high-level language, it is fairly cross-platform
. Since 1977, the language has been going under several standardization steps by the Deutsches Institut für Normung
. The current version is PEARL-90, which was standardized in 1998 as DIN 66253-2.
PEARL is not to be confused with the similarly named Perl
, an entirely unrelated programming language.
and floating-point numeric values, character and character string
data as well as bit values. It also provides facilities for structures and multi-dimensional arrays. Both typed and untyped pointers are also supported, along with typecasting.
PEARL is a higher programming language, which allows a comfortable, secure and almost processor independent programming of multitasking- and realtime problems and has been standardized since 1977 at various stages of its development, the last time 1998 as PEARL-90 (DIN 66253-2 1998, Berlin, Beuth-Verlag, 1998).
Besides the simple possibility to map process technical problems, an important principle at the development of PEARL was the easy learning by the programmer. Everyone who already knows a procedural programming language will get acquainted with PEARL in a very short time.
All basic data types and language structures of other procedural programming languages exist in PEARL. In addition PEARL offers comfortable language elements for the handling of multitasking- and realtime tasks.
Like most other high-level languages, PEARL supports procedures
and functions, and passing parameters to these can be done by value or by reference (via pointers).
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
programming language
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
designed for multitasking
Computer multitasking
In computing, multitasking is a method where multiple tasks, also known as processes, share common processing resources such as a CPU. In the case of a computer with a single CPU, only one task is said to be running at any point in time, meaning that the CPU is actively executing instructions for...
and real-time
Real-time computing
In computer science, real-time computing , or reactive computing, is the study of hardware and software systems that are subject to a "real-time constraint"— e.g. operational deadlines from event to system response. Real-time programs must guarantee response within strict time constraints...
programming. Being a high-level language, it is fairly cross-platform
Cross-platform
In computing, cross-platform, or multi-platform, is an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter-operate on multiple computer platforms...
. Since 1977, the language has been going under several standardization steps by the Deutsches Institut für Normung
Deutsches Institut für Normung
is the German national organization for standardization and is that country's ISO member body. DIN is a Registered German Association headquartered in Berlin...
. The current version is PEARL-90, which was standardized in 1998 as DIN 66253-2.
PEARL is not to be confused with the similarly named Perl
Perl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
, an entirely unrelated programming language.
Features
PEARL supports both fixed-pointFixed-point arithmetic
In computing, a fixed-point number representation is a real data type for a number that has a fixed number of digits after the radix point...
and floating-point numeric values, character and character string
String (computer science)
In formal languages, which are used in mathematical logic and theoretical computer science, a string is a finite sequence of symbols that are chosen from a set or alphabet....
data as well as bit values. It also provides facilities for structures and multi-dimensional arrays. Both typed and untyped pointers are also supported, along with typecasting.
PEARL is a higher programming language, which allows a comfortable, secure and almost processor independent programming of multitasking- and realtime problems and has been standardized since 1977 at various stages of its development, the last time 1998 as PEARL-90 (DIN 66253-2 1998, Berlin, Beuth-Verlag, 1998).
Besides the simple possibility to map process technical problems, an important principle at the development of PEARL was the easy learning by the programmer. Everyone who already knows a procedural programming language will get acquainted with PEARL in a very short time.
All basic data types and language structures of other procedural programming languages exist in PEARL. In addition PEARL offers comfortable language elements for the handling of multitasking- and realtime tasks.
Like most other high-level languages, PEARL supports procedures
Subroutine
In computer science, a subroutine is a portion of code within a larger program that performs a specific task and is relatively independent of the remaining code....
and functions, and passing parameters to these can be done by value or by reference (via pointers).