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<TITLE>Overview of ArmBob 4.0</TITLE>
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<H2><IMG SRC="images/!armbob.png"  width="34" height="34">&nbsp; Overview of ArmBob 4.0</H2>
<P>
Armbob is a small object oriented language,
with a C-like syntax, developed, with his permission, from
David Betz's Bob 1.5 in 1994 by 
G.C.Wraith.

<P>The original intention was to provide a more
modern alternative to BASIC, which could nevertheless be
used for writing wimp programs. In this it has subsequently been eclipsed by
<a href="http://www.wra1th.plus.com/lua/risclua.html">RiscLua</a>,
a higher-order language. Nevertheless, it may be that those accustomed to
first-order languages such as BASIC or C, will find ArmBob
more to their taste.
Version 4.0 was the first 32-bit compatible version.
<P>
ArmBob uses a stack-based virtual machine, into whose instructions
programs are first compiled before execution. It is comparable in speed
to BASIC. Before compilation there is a pre-processing stage;
preprocessor directives resemble those of C. These enable the use
of macros, predefined constants, conditional sections and splitting
programs up into re-usable modules. There is no explicit
typing, and no use of pointers. There are, however, <CITE>classes</CITE>,
with single-inheritance, which use notations that have become
standard across several object-oriented languages. These can play
the role of structures, and offer a substantial advantage in
expressiveness over BASIC.
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 <H3>
 Bob
 </H3>
 Bob was written by 
 <CITE>
   David Betz,

 </CITE>
 
 for the IBM PC. He owns the copyright to Bob. 
 For a description of Bob and how it works see
 the article <CITE> A tiny object-oriented language, D. Betz, 
 Dr Dobb's Journal, September 1991, p.26. </CITE> 

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