MUMPS

MUMPS is a general purpose (special adaptations for database use especially for sparse arrays) programming language developed in the mid 1960s at Massachusets General Hospital for medical database applications such as Admission/Discharge/Tracking. Syntax is akin to BASIC of that era, and is by modern standards unfortunate.

It is usually implemented as an interpreter because of some constructs which are VERY late binding, but compiler implementations have been done. It is very compact, can be quite efficient even as an interpreted language, and is supported by several large firms. DEC, until its demise, was the most prominent. A network extended version, called Cache, is currently available commercially and has been available at no charge for personal use for Linux and other OS. It is the base language for the (open source before Open Source) Fileman database system developed at the US Veteran's Administration, which in turn has become the DHCP project (now VistA) also at the VA.

MUMPS is an ANSI standard language, was the 3rd such, and is widely used throughout the world, particularly in medical contexts. It is not 'another string-based programming protocol for DBMSes'. Because the name is a bit of an inside joke [M(gh)U(tility)P(rogramming)S(ystem)], there was a proposal in the mid 90s to change the name to 'M'. The change was allowed, but not mandated, by the MUMPS Development Committee who are in charge of the language.

This page is linked from: REBOL