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FORMAC, the FORmula MAnipulation Compiler, was the first
computer algebra system
A computer algebra system (CAS) or symbolic algebra system (SAS) is any mathematical software with the ability to manipulate mathematical expressions in a way similar to the traditional manual computations of mathematicians and scientists. The de ...
to have significant use.
[
] It was developed by
Jean E. Sammet and her team, as an extension of
FORTRAN IV. The compiler was implemented as a preprocessor taking the FORMAC program and converting it to a FORTRAN IV program which was in turn compiled without further user intervention.
Initial development started in 1962 and was complete by April 1964. In November it was released to IBM customers.
FORMAC supported computation, manipulation, and use of symbolic expressions.
In addition it supported rational arithmetic.
See also
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ALTRAN
ALTRAN (ALgebraic TRANslator) is a programming language for the formal manipulation of rational functions of several variables with integer coefficients. It was developed at Bell Labs in 1960s. ALTRAN is a FORTRAN version of ALPAK rational algebra ...
References
Bibliography
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External links
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Computer algebra systems
Fortran programming language family
Procedural programming languages
Programming languages created in 1962
Programming languages created by women
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