PIC (markup language)

Pic is a domain-specific programming language created by Brian Kernighan at AT&T Bell Laboratories for describing line diagrams in text form, first released in 1988. It provides predefined linear objects such as line, move, arrow and spline, planar objects such as box, circle, ellipse and arc, and lets a user build definable composite elements from them, placing objects relative to each other or at absolute coordinates. When an object is only partly specified, Pic falls back on sensible default parameters rather than failing outright. An interpreter translates a Pic description into concrete drawing commands for a variety of output formats. Pic is a procedural language with variable assignment, macros, conditionals and loops, and belongs to the Unix tradition of small, purpose-built little languages meant to be comfortable for non-programmers rather than general software development.