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1.1       root        1: .\" Copyright (c) 1983 Regents of the University of California.
                      2: .\" All rights reserved.  The Berkeley software License Agreement
                      3: .\" specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
                      4: .\"
                      5: .\"    @(#)fp.1        6.1 (Berkeley) 4/29/85
                      6: .\"
                      7: .TH FP 1 "April 29, 1985"
                      8: .UC 5
                      9: .ds s 1
                     10: .SH NAME
                     11: fp \-  Functional Programming language compiler/interpreter
                     12: .SH SYNOPSIS
                     13: .B fp
                     14: .SH DESCRIPTION
                     15: .PP
                     16: .I Fp
                     17: is an
                     18: interpreter/compiler that implements the applicative language proposed
                     19: by John Backus.  It is written in
                     20: .SM
                     21: .BR "FRANZ LISP" .
                     22: .PP
                     23: In a  functional programming language
                     24: intent is expressed
                     25: in  a mathematical style devoid of assignment statements
                     26: and variables.
                     27: Functions compute by value only; there are no side-effects
                     28: since  the result of a computation depends solely on the inputs.
                     29: .PP
                     30: .I Fp
                     31: "programs" consist of
                     32: .I functional expressions \-
                     33: primitive and user-defined 
                     34: .I fp
                     35: functions
                     36: combined by 
                     37: .I functional forms.
                     38: These forms take functional arguments
                     39: and return functional results.
                     40: For example, the composition
                     41: operator 
                     42: .I '@'
                     43: takes two functional arguments and returns a function
                     44: which represents their composition.
                     45: .PP
                     46: There exists a single operation in 
                     47: .I fp
                     48: \&\-
                     49: .I application.
                     50: This operation causes the system to evaluate the indicated function using
                     51: the single argument 
                     52: as input
                     53: (all functions are monadic).
                     54: .SH GETTING STARTED
                     55: .PP
                     56: .I Fp
                     57: invokes the system.  
                     58: .I Fp
                     59: compiles functions into
                     60: .IR lisp (1)
                     61: source code;
                     62: .IR lisp (1)
                     63: interprets this code
                     64: (the user may compile this code using the
                     65: liszt (\*s) compiler to gain a factor of 10 in performance).
                     66: .I Control D
                     67: exits back to the shell.
                     68: .I Break
                     69: terminates any computation in progress  and resets any open file units.
                     70: .I )help
                     71: provides a short summary of all user commands.
                     72: .SH FILES
                     73: .DT
                     74: /usr/ucb/lisp  the FRANZ LISP interpreter
                     75: .br
                     76: /usr/ucb/liszt the liszt compiler
                     77: .br
                     78: /usr/doc/fp    the User's Guide
                     79: .SH SEE ALSO
                     80: .PP
                     81: lisp(\*s), liszt(\*s).
                     82: .PP
                     83: .I The Berkeley FP user's manual,
                     84: available on-line.
                     85: The language is described  in  the August 1978 issue of  
                     86: .I CACM
                     87: (Turing award lecture by John Backus).
                     88: .SH BUGS
                     89: .PP
                     90: If a non-terminating function is applied as the result of loading a file,
                     91: then control is returned to the user immediately, everything
                     92: after that position in the file is ignored.
                     93: .PP
                     94: FP incorrectly marks the location of a syntax error on
                     95: large, multi-line function definitions or applications.
                     96: .SH AUTHOR
                     97: Scott B. Baden

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