Sigmac
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sigmac is a macro programming language for the ARRIS CAD System.
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[edit] History
It was developed in the early 1980's by Sigma Design, Ltd. of Englewood, Colorado, for use with the Sigma Graphics CAD System. (Sigma Graphics has now been renamed to ARRIS CAD and is sold by Sigma Design International. of Alexandria, Louisiana.
Its name was derived from "Sigma Macro Language".
Sigmac is still in use by users of the ARRIS CAD System to write custom applications and custom commands.
[edit] Overview
"The Sigmac language consists of syntax, a toolbox and logic. Syntax is the grammar of the language, consisting of symbols and keywords that makeup executing statements. The toolbox is the set of application sigmacs and functions. Functions are powerful and complex, affectionately referred to as dollar utilities (they all begin with "$"). $utilities expect arguments in a strict order and may or may not return data. Logic is the flow (or control) in which statements are executed." (from "What is a Sigmac")
[edit] Syntax
Sigmac borrowed much of its syntax from BASIC, such as using the first letter of a variable to determine its type. It is a compiled, but interpreted language, meaning that the source code is compiled into "pseudo codes" rather than native machine language, which are then interpreted and executed at run time. Because of this feature, Sigmac commands could be executed on all platforms support by ARRIS - Windows, Solaris, etc.
[edit] Sample Sigmac
001 /* hello.ff sc 03.15.2000 ARRIS v7.1 002 //hello 003 level 1u 004 ! ' Hello World ' 005 006 exit
(from Sigmac Basics, by Steve Clark
