<s>
PEARL	B-Language
,	O
or	O
Process	O
and	O
experiment	O
automation	O
realtime	O
language	O
,	O
is	O
a	O
computer	O
programming	O
language	O
designed	O
for	O
multitasking	O
and	O
real-time	B-General_Concept
programming	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Being	O
a	O
high-level	B-Language
language	I-Language
,	O
it	O
is	O
fairly	O
cross-platform	B-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
current	O
version	O
is	O
PEARL-90	O
,	O
which	O
was	O
standardized	O
in	O
1998	O
as	O
DIN	O
66253-2	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
PEARL	B-Language
supports	O
both	O
fixed-point	O
and	O
floating-point	B-Algorithm
numeric	B-Algorithm
values	O
,	O
character	O
and	O
character	O
string	O
data	O
as	O
well	O
as	O
bit	O
values	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
also	O
provides	O
facilities	O
for	O
structures	O
and	O
multi-dimensional	O
arrays	B-Data_Structure
.	O
</s>
<s>
PEARL	B-Language
is	O
a	O
higher	O
programming	O
language	O
,	O
which	O
allows	O
a	O
comfortable	O
,	O
secure	O
and	O
almost	O
processor	O
independent	O
programming	O
of	O
multitasking	O
and	O
realtime	O
problems	O
and	O
has	O
been	O
standardized	O
since	O
1977	O
at	O
various	O
stages	O
of	O
its	O
development	O
,	O
the	O
last	O
time	O
1998	O
as	O
PEARL-90	O
(	O
DIN	O
66253-2	O
1998	O
,	O
Berlin	O
,	O
Beuth-Verlag	O
,	O
1998	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Besides	O
the	O
simple	O
possibility	O
to	O
map	O
process	O
technical	O
problems	O
,	O
an	O
important	O
principle	O
at	O
the	O
development	O
of	O
PEARL	B-Language
was	O
the	O
easy	O
learning	O
by	O
the	O
programmer	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
All	O
basic	O
data	O
types	O
and	O
language	O
structures	O
of	O
other	O
procedural	O
programming	O
languages	O
exist	O
in	O
PEARL	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
addition	O
PEARL	B-Language
offers	O
comfortable	O
language	O
elements	O
for	O
the	O
handling	O
of	O
multitasking	O
-	O
and	O
realtime	O
tasks	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Like	O
most	O
other	O
high-level	B-Language
languages	I-Language
,	O
PEARL	B-Language
supports	O
procedures	O
and	O
functions	O
,	O
and	O
passing	O
parameters	O
to	O
these	O
can	O
be	O
done	O
by	O
value	O
or	O
by	O
reference	O
(	O
via	O
pointers	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
