<s>
Snowball	B-Language
is	O
a	O
small	O
string	O
processing	O
programming	O
language	O
designed	O
for	O
creating	O
stemming	B-General_Concept
algorithms	I-General_Concept
for	O
use	O
in	O
information	B-Library
retrieval	I-Library
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
Snowball	B-Language
compiler	O
translates	O
a	O
Snowball	B-Language
script	O
(	O
a	O
.sbl	O
file	O
)	O
into	O
program	O
in	O
thread-safe	B-Operating_System
ANSI	O
C	B-Language
,	O
Java	B-Language
,	O
Ada	O
,	O
C#	O
,	O
Go	O
,	O
Javascript	O
,	O
Object	O
Pascal	O
,	O
Python	O
or	O
Rust	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
For	O
ANSI	O
C	B-Language
,	O
each	O
Snowball	B-Language
script	O
produces	O
a	O
program	O
file	O
and	O
corresponding	O
header	O
file	O
(	O
with	O
.c	B-Language
and	O
.h	O
extensions	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
Snowball	B-Language
compiler	O
checks	O
the	O
consistency	O
of	O
its	O
script	O
,	O
and	O
this	O
check	O
was	O
used	O
to	O
discover	O
a	O
typo	O
in	O
a	O
seminal	O
academic	O
paper	O
by	O
Lovins	O
which	O
had	O
remained	O
undetected	O
for	O
30	O
years	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
basic	O
datatypes	O
handled	O
by	O
Snowball	B-Language
are	O
strings	O
of	O
characters	O
,	O
signed	O
integers	O
,	O
and	O
boolean	O
truth	O
values	O
,	O
or	O
more	O
simply	O
strings	O
,	O
integers	O
and	O
booleans	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Snowball	B-Language
's	O
characters	O
are	O
either	O
8-bit	O
wide	O
,	O
or	O
16-bit	O
,	O
depending	O
on	O
the	O
mode	O
of	O
use	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
particular	O
,	O
both	O
ASCII	B-Protocol
and	O
16-bit	O
Unicode	O
are	O
supported	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Like	O
the	O
SNOBOL	B-Application
programming	I-Application
language	I-Application
,	O
the	O
flow	O
of	O
control	O
in	O
Snowball	B-Language
is	O
arranged	O
by	O
the	O
implicit	O
use	O
of	O
signals	O
(	O
each	O
statement	O
returns	O
a	O
true	O
or	O
false	O
value	O
)	O
,	O
rather	O
than	O
the	O
explicit	O
use	O
of	O
constructs	O
such	O
as	O
if	O
,	O
then	O
,	O
and	O
break	O
found	O
in	O
C	B-Language
and	O
many	O
other	O
programming	O
languages	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
name	O
Snowball	B-Language
was	O
chosen	O
as	O
a	O
tribute	O
to	O
the	O
SNOBOL	B-Application
programming	I-Application
language	I-Application
,	O
with	O
which	O
it	O
shares	O
the	O
concept	O
of	O
string	O
patterns	O
delivering	O
signals	O
that	O
are	O
used	O
to	O
control	O
the	O
flow	O
of	O
the	O
program	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
creator	O
of	O
Snowball	B-Language
,	O
Dr.	O
Martin	O
Porter	O
,	O
"	O
toyed	O
with	O
the	O
idea	O
of	O
calling	O
it	O
'	O
strippergram	O
 '	O
"	O
,	O
because	O
it	O
"	O
effectively	O
provides	O
a	O
'	O
suffix	O
STRIPPER	O
GRAMmar	O
 '	O
"	O
.	O
</s>
