MUMPS Programming/syntax

Basic MUMPS Syntax - Lines, Spaces, WhiteSpace, Comments MUMPS syntax was designed to be concise in a time of scarce memory. This serves a purpose now in that programs are cognitively concise: a lot more fits in view on a screen or on a page of paper. The basic language structure is command command-separator argument. The command may be one of the MUMPS commands, like "SET" or "WRITE" The command-separator is written as a single space (or blank) between command (SET) and the arguments. The argument depends on the command. The argument can be a list of single-arguments (separated by commas) or a single-argument. Each single-argument usually is in the form of an expression or group of expression, separated by colons. separating each command may be multiple spaces for readability. Another command may follow a space on the same line. SET X=1 SET Y=2 Whitespace - eol is NOT treated as equivalent to space. Each has different role in MUMPS. Tabs are also NOT equivalent to a space, but are sometimes treated like space to delineate a label. Traditional MUMPS editors (IDEs) sometimes treat tabs specially, but do not put the tab character into the MUMPS routine. Lines are significant to the syntax as each line starts with a tag(line label) and a space or a space when there is no label. Comments start with semicolon (;) and go to the end of the line. A line may start with ; and is all comment. There is no command termination character (like ; in java or Perl) other than the eol or a space following the argument. Assignment requires the explicit command SET or S SET X=1,Y=2 ; either form full or abbreviated command S S X=1,Y=2 ; There is no syntactic role for braces {} Expressions are grouped by parenthesis Programs ('routines' in traditional MUMPS terminology) have a unique name and consist of a linear sequence of lines.