COMIT as an IR language

('o~[rr is a user-oriented general-purpose symbolmaldpulat.ion programming language. [ t is user-oriented it~ that it is a high-level language that is easy to learn and to use. T h e use of Comw should minimize the user's time for p rogramming a problem, the computer time. needed for (.heckhtg it out, and thus the elapsed time required lo obtain a running program. I t is a general-purpose synd)ol-manipulation language in that it is especially (,o~ vonient for problems ranging from nmchanical translation Io itfformation retrieval, and fl'on~ theorem proving to ihe maintenance of predominantly non-numerical {:i les. ( ' omT was originally conceived as a special-purpose t:)r,A)len>oriented programming language for research (m ihe m(~chanical translation into English of languages such as ( ; e r m a n and Russian. I t was based on a notation in daily use I~ 3, some of the linguists working on this pr(,hhml a t 5[ . I .T . Some of the individual features of *h(' notat ion were dropped as inappropriate, and marly features were added to convert it to a programming language. It was soon realized that the requirements of mc,.'hanieal i ranslation could not be used for the complete (leSnitiotl of a programming language because the proMem of meclmrfieal translation was partially unsoh'ed and it, was not: k n o w n where some of the solutions might lie or what tyDes of programs might be needed. For this reason the notatiott was consciously broadened so as to be potentiaily useful for as wide a class of symbol manipulation p rob lems as possible. At this point the emphasis shifted f rom problem orientation to user orientation, and