An introduction to the scientific computing language Pascal-SC

AbstractMicrocomputers are now widely used for small-scale scientific, engineering, and statistical computing. Pascal-SC (Pascal for Scientific Computing) is a language developed specifically for this purpose. Its most important features are: (i) accurate floating-point arithmetic for real, complex, and interval numbers, vectors, and matrices, with controlled rounding if desired; (ii) the convenience of operator notation for numerical data types and the ability to accept user-defined operators for nonstandard data types to make programs easier to write, read, and document; and (iii) compatibility with ordinary Pascal, so that Pascal programming techniques and programs already written in Pascal can be used immediately. In PascalSC, solutions of linear systems of equations, inverses of matrices, and eigenvalues and eigenvectors are computed with guaranteed error bounds, and scalar products of vectors and sums of arbitrary length of floating-point numbers are computed to the closest floating-point number, or rounded upward or downward as desired. These basic features of Pascal-SC will be described, together with some applications