llama.cpp is an open source software library written mostly in C++ that performs inference on various large language models such as Llama . It is co-developed alongside the GGML project, a general-purpose tensor library.
87-489: Command-line tools are included with the library, alongside a server with a simple web interface . Towards the end of September 2022, Georgi Gerganov started work on the GGML library, a C library implementing tensor algebra . Gerganov developed the library with the intention of strict memory management and multi-threading. The creation of GGML was inspired by Fabrice Bellard 's work on LibNC. Before llama.cpp, Gerganov worked on
174-509: A compiler written for the language. ( Assembly language programs are translated using an assembler .) The resulting file is called an executable . Alternatively, source code may execute within an interpreter written for the language. If the executable is requested for execution, then the operating system loads it into memory and starts a process . The central processing unit will soon switch to this process so it can fetch, decode, and then execute each machine instruction. If
261-513: A flag or switch ) modifies the operation of a command; the effect is determined by the command's program. Options follow the command name on the command line, separated by spaces. A space before the first option is not always required, such as Dir/? and DIR /? in DOS, which have the same effect of listing the DIR command's available options, whereas dir --help (in many versions of Unix) does require
348-507: A help option provides a concise review of the options of a command. The command-line environment may not provide graphical enhancements such as different fonts or extended edit windows found in a GUI. It may be difficult for a new user to become familiar with all the commands and options available, compared with the icons and drop-down menus of a graphical user interface, without reference to manuals. Operating system (OS) command-line interfaces are usually distinct programs supplied with
435-462: A list of integers could be called integer_list . In object-oriented jargon, abstract datatypes are called classes . However, a class is only a definition; no memory is allocated. When memory is allocated to a class and bound to an identifier , it is called an object . Object-oriented imperative languages developed by combining the need for classes and the need for safe functional programming . A function, in an object-oriented language,
522-474: A pipeline where the output of one command becomes the input to the next command. One can modify the set of available commands by modifying which paths appear in the PATH environment variable. Under Unix, commands also need be marked as executable files. The directories in the path variable are searched in the order they are given. By re-ordering the path, one can run e.g. \OS2\MDOS\E.EXE instead of \OS2\E.EXE, when
609-422: A programming language . Programming language features exist to provide building blocks to be combined to express programming ideals. Ideally, a programming language should: The programming style of a programming language to provide these building blocks may be categorized into programming paradigms . For example, different paradigms may differentiate: Each of these programming styles has contributed to
696-428: A store which consisted of memory to hold 1,000 numbers of 50 decimal digits each. Numbers from the store were transferred to the mill for processing. The engine was programmed using two sets of perforated cards. One set directed the operation and the other set inputted the variables. However, the thousands of cogged wheels and gears never fully worked together. Ada Lovelace worked for Charles Babbage to create
783-588: A Bulgarian software services company. llama.cpp began development in March 2023 by Georgi Gerganov as an implementation of the Llama inference code in pure C/C++ with no dependencies. This improved performance on computers without GPU or other dedicated hardware, which was a goal of the project. llama.cpp gained traction with users who lacked specialized hardware as it could run on just a CPU including on Android devices. While initially designed for CPUs, GPU inference support
870-438: A CLI, presenting their own prompt to the user and accepting command lines. Other programs support both a CLI and a GUI. In some cases, a GUI is simply a wrapper around a separate CLI executable file . In other cases, a program may provide a CLI as an optional alternative to its GUI. CLIs and GUIs often support different functionality. For example, all features of MATLAB , a numerical analysis computer program, are available via
957-416: A GPT-like language model such as the tokenizer vocabulary, context length, tensor info and other attributes. Command-line interface A command-line interface ( CLI ) is a means of interacting with a computer program by inputting lines of text called command-lines . Command-line interfaces emerged in the mid-1960s, on computer terminals , as an interactive and more user-friendly alternative to
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#17328691548111044-453: A Unix-like CLI. Microsoft provides MKS Inc. 's ksh implementation MKS Korn shell for Windows through their Services for UNIX add-on. Since 2001, the Macintosh operating system macOS has been based on a Unix-like operating system called Darwin . On these computers, users can access a Unix-like command-line interface by running the terminal emulator program called Terminal , which
1131-504: A command procedure or script which itself can be treated as a command. These advantages mean that a user must figure out a complex command or series of commands only once, because they can be saved, to be used again. The commands given to a CLI shell are often in one of the following forms: where doSomething is, in effect, a verb , how an adverb (for example, should the command be executed verbosely or quietly ) and toFiles an object or objects (typically one or more files) on which
1218-604: A description of the Analytical Engine (1843). The description contained Note G which completely detailed a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers using the Analytical Engine. This note is recognized by some historians as the world's first computer program . In 1936, Alan Turing introduced the Universal Turing machine , a theoretical device that can model every computation. It is a finite-state machine that has an infinitely long read/write tape. The machine can move
1305-580: A language's basic syntax . The syntax of the language BASIC (1964) was intentionally limited to make the language easy to learn. For example, variables are not declared before being used. Also, variables are automatically initialized to zero. Here is an example computer program, in Basic, to average a list of numbers: Once the mechanics of basic computer programming are learned, more sophisticated and powerful languages are available to build large computer systems. Improvements in software development are
1392-521: A profound influence on programming language design. Emerging from a committee of European and American programming language experts, it used standard mathematical notation and had a readable, structured design. Algol was first to define its syntax using the Backus–Naur form . This led to syntax-directed compilers. It added features like: Algol's direct descendants include Pascal , Modula-2 , Ada , Delphi and Oberon on one branch. On another branch
1479-588: A pure GUI. This is typically the case with operating system command shells . CLIs are also used by systems with insufficient resources to support a graphical user interface. Some computer language systems (such as Python , Forth , LISP , Rexx , and many dialects of BASIC ) provide an interactive command-line mode to allow for rapid evaluation of code. CLIs are often used by programmers and system administrators, in engineering and scientific environments, and by technically advanced personal computer users. CLIs are also popular among people with visual disabilities since
1566-557: A result, the computer could be programmed quickly and perform calculations at very fast speeds. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly built the ENIAC. The two engineers introduced the stored-program concept in a three-page memo dated February 1944. Later, in September 1944, John von Neumann began working on the ENIAC project. On June 30, 1945, von Neumann published the First Draft of a Report on
1653-662: A similar library called whisper.cpp which implemented Whisper , a speech to text model by OpenAI . Gerganov has a background in medical physics , and was part of the Faculty of Physics in Sofia University . In 2006 he won a silver medal in the International Physics Olympiad . In 2008 he won a programming competition organized by the Bulgarian Association of Software Companies, PC Magazine and Musala Soft,
1740-687: A single file that runs on multiple operating systems via the Cosmopolitan Libc library also created by Tunney which allows C/C++ to be more portable across operating systems. llama.cpp supports multiple hardware targets including x86 , ARM , CUDA , Metal , Vulkan and SYCL . These back-ends make up the GGML tensor library which is used by the front-end model-specific llama.cpp code. llama.cpp supports ahead of time model quantization as opposed to on-the-fly quantization. llama.cpp makes use of several CPU extensions for optimization: AVX , AVX2 and AVX-512 for X86-64 , and Neon on ARM. Apple silicon
1827-481: Is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to execute . It is one component of software , which also includes documentation and other intangible components. A computer program in its human-readable form is called source code . Source code needs another computer program to execute because computers can only execute their native machine instructions . Therefore, source code may be translated to machine instructions using
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#17328691548111914-509: Is active a program is typically invoked by typing its name followed by command-line arguments (if any). For example, in Unix and Unix-like environments, an example of a command-line argument is: file.s is a command-line argument which tells the program rm to remove the file named file.s . Some programming languages, such as C , C++ and Java , allow a program to interpret the command-line arguments by handling them as string parameters in
2001-514: Is an important target for the project. It supports grammar-based output formatting as JSON . The GGUF (GGML Universal File) file format is a binary format that stores both tensors and metadata in a single file, and is designed for fast saving, and loading of model data. It was introduced in August 2023 by the llama.cpp project to better maintain backwards compatibility as support was added for other model architectures. It succeeded previous formats used by
2088-418: Is assigned to a class. An assigned function is then referred to as a method , member function , or operation . Object-oriented programming is executing operations on objects . Object-oriented languages support a syntax to model subset/superset relationships. In set theory , an element of a subset inherits all the attributes contained in the superset. For example, a student is a person. Therefore,
2175-584: Is found in the Utilities sub-folder of the Applications folder, or by remotely logging into the machine using ssh . Z shell is the default shell for macOS; Bash, tcsh , and the KornShell are also provided. Before macOS Catalina , Bash was the default. A CLI is used whenever a large vocabulary of commands or queries, coupled with a wide (or arbitrary) range of options, can be entered more rapidly as text than with
2262-516: Is the grammar that all commands must follow. In the case of operating systems , DOS and Unix each define their own set of rules that all commands must follow. In the case of embedded systems , each vendor, such as Nortel , Juniper Networks or Cisco Systems , defines their own proprietary set of rules. These rules also dictate how a user navigates through the system of commands. The semantics define what sort of operations are possible, on what sort of data these operations can be performed, and how
2349-548: Is to alter the electrical resistivity and conductivity of a semiconductor junction . First, naturally occurring silicate minerals are converted into polysilicon rods using the Siemens process . The Czochralski process then converts the rods into a monocrystalline silicon , boule crystal . The crystal is then thinly sliced to form a wafer substrate . The planar process of photolithography then integrates unipolar transistors, capacitors , diodes , and resistors onto
2436-604: The IBM System/360 (1964) had a CPU made from circuit boards containing discrete components on ceramic substrates . The Intel 4004 (1971) was a 4- bit microprocessor designed to run the Busicom calculator. Five months after its release, Intel released the Intel 8008 , an 8-bit microprocessor. Bill Pentz led a team at Sacramento State to build the first microcomputer using the Intel 8008:
2523-480: The Sac State 8008 (1972). Its purpose was to store patient medical records. The computer supported a disk operating system to run a Memorex , 3- megabyte , hard disk drive . It had a color display and keyboard that was packaged in a single console. The disk operating system was programmed using IBM's Basic Assembly Language (BAL) . The medical records application was programmed using a BASIC interpreter. However,
2610-550: The circuits . At its core, it was a series of Pascalines wired together. Its 40 units weighed 30 tons, occupied 1,800 square feet (167 m ), and consumed $ 650 per hour ( in 1940s currency ) in electricity when idle. It had 20 base-10 accumulators . Programming the ENIAC took up to two months. Three function tables were on wheels and needed to be rolled to fixed function panels. Function tables were connected to function panels by plugging heavy black cables into plugboards . Each function table had 728 rotating knobs. Programming
2697-476: The main function . Other languages, such as Python , expose operating system specific API (functionality) through sys module , and in particular sys.argv for command-line arguments . In Unix-like operating systems , a single hyphen used in place of a file name is a special value specifying that a program should handle data coming from the standard input or send data to the standard output . A command-line option or simply option (also known as
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2784-404: The programming environment to advance from a computer terminal (until the 1990s) to a graphical user interface (GUI) computer. Computer terminals limited programmers to a single shell running in a command-line environment . During the 1970s, full-screen source code editing became possible through a text-based user interface . Regardless of the technology available, the goal is to program in
2871-524: The CLI, whereas the MATLAB GUI exposes only a subset of features. In Colossal Cave Adventure from 1975, the user uses a CLI to enter one or two words to explore a cave system. The command-line interface evolved from a form of communication conducted by people over teleprinter (TTY) machines. Sometimes these involved sending an order or a confirmation using telex . Early computer systems often used teleprinter as
2958-494: The EDVAC , which equated the structures of the computer with the structures of the human brain. The design became known as the von Neumann architecture . The architecture was simultaneously deployed in the constructions of the EDVAC and EDSAC computers in 1949. The IBM System/360 (1964) was a family of computers, each having the same instruction set architecture . The Model 20 was
3045-433: The ENIAC also involved setting some of the 3,000 switches. Debugging a program took a week. It ran from 1947 until 1955 at Aberdeen Proving Ground , calculating hydrogen bomb parameters, predicting weather patterns, and producing firing tables to aim artillery guns. Instead of plugging in cords and turning switches, a stored-program computer loads its instructions into memory just like it loads its data into memory. As
3132-515: The PC's serial ports . These were typically used to interface an organization's new PC's with their existing mini- or mainframe computers, or to connect PC to PC. Some of these PCs were running Bulletin Board System software. Early operating system CLIs were implemented as part of resident monitor programs, and could not easily be replaced. The first implementation of the shell as a replaceable component
3219-492: The Windows CMD.EXE programs, the latter groups being based heavily on DEC's RSX-11 and RSTS CLIs. Under most operating systems, it is possible to replace the default shell program with alternatives; examples include 4DOS for DOS, 4OS2 for OS/2, and 4NT / Take Command for Windows. Although the term 'shell' is often used to describe a command-line interpreter, strictly speaking, a 'shell' can be any program that constitutes
3306-640: The cheaper Intel 8088 . IBM embraced the Intel 8088 when they entered the personal computer market (1981). As consumer demand for personal computers increased, so did Intel's microprocessor development. The succession of development is known as the x86 series . The x86 assembly language is a family of backward-compatible machine instructions . Machine instructions created in earlier microprocessors were retained throughout microprocessor upgrades. This enabled consumers to purchase new computers without having to purchase new application software . The major categories of instructions are: VLSI circuits enabled
3393-423: The command In zsh the $ RPROMPT variable controls an optional prompt on the right-hand side of the display. It is not a real prompt in that the location of text entry does not change. It is used to display information on the same line as the prompt, but right-justified. In RISC OS the command prompt is a * symbol, and thus (OS) CLI commands are often referred to as star commands . One can also access
3480-660: The command line interface as the primary user interface replaced by the Graphical User Interface . The command line remained available as an alternative user interface, often used by system administrators and other advanced users for system administration, computer programming and batch processing . In November 2006, Microsoft released version 1.0 of Windows PowerShell (formerly codenamed Monad ), which combined features of traditional Unix shells with their proprietary object-oriented .NET Framework . MinGW and Cygwin are open-source packages for Windows that offer
3567-399: The command should act. The > in the third example is a redirection operator , telling the command-line interpreter to send the output of the command not to its own standard output (the screen) but to the named file. This will overwrite the file. Using >> will redirect the output and append it to the file. Another redirection operator is the vertical bar ( | ), which creates
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3654-431: The commands and responses can be displayed using refreshable Braille displays . The general pattern of a command line interface is: In this format, the delimiters between command-line elements are whitespace characters and the end-of-line delimiter is the newline delimiter. This is a widely used (but not universal) convention. A CLI can generally be considered as consisting of syntax and semantics . The syntax
3741-466: The commands. Alternatives to CLIs include GUIs (most notably desktop metaphors with a mouse pointer , such as Microsoft Windows ), text-based user interface menus (such as DOS Shell and IBM AIX SMIT ), and keyboard shortcuts . Compared with a graphical user interface, a command-line interface requires fewer system resources to implement. Since options to commands are given in a few characters in each command line, an experienced user often finds
3828-419: The computer was an evolutionary dead-end because it was extremely expensive. Also, it was built at a public university lab for a specific purpose. Nonetheless, the project contributed to the development of the Intel 8080 (1974) instruction set . In 1978, the modern software development environment began when Intel upgraded the Intel 8080 to the Intel 8086 . Intel simplified the Intel 8086 to manufacture
3915-537: The configuration, an execute button was pressed. This process was then repeated. Computer programs also were automatically inputted via paper tape , punched cards or magnetic-tape . After the medium was loaded, the starting address was set via switches, and the execute button was pressed. A major milestone in software development was the invention of the Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) circuit (1964). Following World War II , tube-based technology
4002-407: The current time, user, shell number or working directory) in order, for instance, to make the prompt more informative or visually pleasing, to distinguish sessions on various machines, or to indicate the current level of nesting of commands. On some systems, special tokens in the definition of the prompt can be used to cause external programs to be called by the command-line interpreter while displaying
4089-422: The default is the opposite. Renaming of the executables also works: people often rename their favourite editor to EDIT, for example. The command line allows one to restrict available commands, such as access to advanced internal commands. The Windows CMD.EXE does this. Often, shareware programs will limit the range of commands, including printing a command 'your administrator has disabled running batch files' from
4176-434: The descendants include C , C++ and Java . BASIC (1964) stands for "Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code". It was developed at Dartmouth College for all of their students to learn. If a student did not go on to a more powerful language, the student would still remember Basic. A Basic interpreter was installed in the microcomputers manufactured in the late 1970s. As the microcomputer industry grew, so did
4263-494: The features that are commonly considered to produce structured programs. The Bourne shell led to the development of the KornShell (ksh), Almquist shell (ash), and the popular Bourne-again shell (or Bash). Early microcomputers themselves were based on a command-line interface such as CP/M , DOS or AppleSoft BASIC . During the 1980s and 1990s, the introduction of the Apple Macintosh and of Microsoft Windows on PCs saw
4350-460: The first Fortran standard in 1966. In 1978, Fortran 77 became the standard until 1991. Fortran 90 supports: COBOL (1959) stands for "COmmon Business Oriented Language". Fortran manipulated symbols. It was soon realized that symbols did not need to be numbers, so strings were introduced. The US Department of Defense influenced COBOL's development, with Grace Hopper being a major contributor. The statements were English-like and verbose. The goal
4437-500: The first Multics shell was developed by Glenda Schroeder . The first Unix shell , the V6 shell , was developed by Ken Thompson in 1971 at Bell Labs and was modeled after Schroeder's Multics shell. The Bourne shell was introduced in 1977 as a replacement for the V6 shell. Although it is used as an interactive command interpreter, it was also intended as a scripting language and contains most of
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#17328691548114524-412: The grammar represents these operations and data—the symbolic meaning in the syntax. Two different CLIs may agree on either syntax or semantics, but it is only when they agree on both that they can be considered sufficiently similar to allow users to use both CLIs without needing to learn anything, as well as to enable re-use of scripts. A simple CLI will display a prompt, accept a command line typed by
4611-501: The interface mode. At this point, commands from the system mode may not be accessible until the user exits the interface mode and enters the system mode. A command prompt (or just prompt ) is a sequence of (one or more) characters used in a command-line interface to indicate readiness to accept commands. It literally prompts the user to take action. A prompt usually ends with one of the characters $ , % , # , : , > or - and often includes other information, such as
4698-475: The language BCPL was replaced with B , and AT&T Bell Labs called the next version "C". Its purpose was to write the UNIX operating system . C is a relatively small language, making it easy to write compilers. Its growth mirrored the hardware growth in the 1980s. Its growth also was because it has the facilities of assembly language , but uses a high-level syntax . It added advanced features like: C allows
4785-400: The language. Basic pioneered the interactive session . It offered operating system commands within its environment: However, the Basic syntax was too simple for large programs. Recent dialects added structure and object-oriented extensions. Microsoft's Visual Basic is still widely used and produces a graphical user interface . C programming language (1973) got its name because
4872-485: The matrix was to burn out the unneeded connections. There were so many connections, firmware programmers wrote a computer program on another chip to oversee the burning. The technology became known as Programmable ROM . In 1971, Intel installed the computer program onto the chip and named it the Intel 4004 microprocessor . The terms microprocessor and central processing unit (CPU) are now used interchangeably. However, CPUs predate microprocessors. For example,
4959-598: The means of interaction with an operator. The mechanical teleprinter was replaced by a "glass tty" , a keyboard and screen emulating the teleprinter. "Smart" terminals permitted additional functions, such as cursor movement over the entire screen, or local editing of data on the terminal for transmission to the computer. As the microcomputer revolution replaced the traditional – minicomputer + terminals – time sharing architecture, hardware terminals were replaced by terminal emulators — PC software that interpreted terminal signals sent through
5046-457: The newer C:\> style, unless used on floppy drives A: or B:; on those systems PROMPT $ N$ G can be used to override the automatic default and explicitly switch to the older style. Many Unix systems feature the $ PS1 variable (Prompt String 1), although other variables also may affect the prompt (depending on the shell used). In the Bash shell, a prompt of the form: could be set by issuing
5133-610: The non-interactive interface available with punched cards . Today, most computer users rely on graphical user interfaces ("GUIs") instead of CLIs. However, many programs and operating system utilities lack GUIs, and are intended to be used through CLIs. Knowledge of CLIs is also useful for writing scripts . Programs that have CLIs are generally easy to automate via scripting, since command-lines, being mere lines of text, are easy to specify in code. CLIs are made possible by command-line interpreters or command-line processors , which are programs that read command-lines and carry out
5220-506: The operating system. A program that implements such a text interface is often called a command-line interpreter, command processor or shell . Examples of command-line interpreters include Nushell , DEC's DIGITAL Command Language (DCL) in OpenVMS and RSX-11 , the various Unix shells ( sh , ksh , csh , tcsh , zsh , Bash , etc.), CP/M 's CCP , DOS ' COMMAND.COM , as well as the OS/2 and
5307-491: The option to be preceded by at least one space (and is case-sensitive). The format of options varies widely between operating systems. In most cases the syntax is by convention rather than an operating system requirement; the entire command line is simply a string passed to a program, which can process it in any way the programmer wants, so long as the interpreter can tell where the command name ends and its arguments and options begin. Computer program A computer program
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#17328691548115394-422: The options easier to access. Automation of repetitive tasks is simplified by line editing and history mechanisms for storing frequently used sequences; this may extend to a scripting language that can take parameters and variable options. A command-line history can be kept, allowing review or repetition of commands. A command-line system may require paper or online manuals for the user's reference, although often
5481-464: The path of the current working directory and the hostname . On many Unix and derivative systems , the prompt commonly ends in $ or % if the user is a normal user, but in # if the user is a superuser ("root" in Unix terminology). End-users can often modify prompts. Depending on the environment, they may include colors, special characters, and other elements (like variables and functions for
5568-443: The programmer to control which region of memory data is to be stored. Global variables and static variables require the fewest clock cycles to store. The stack is automatically used for the standard variable declarations . Heap memory is returned to a pointer variable from the malloc() function. In the 1970s, software engineers needed language support to break large projects down into modules . One obvious feature
5655-567: The project such as GGML. GGUF files are typically created by converting models developed with a different machine learning library such as PyTorch . The format focuses on quantization, the act of reducing precision in the model weights. This can lead to reduced memory usage, and increased speed at the expense of lower model accuracy. GGUF supports 2-bit to 8-bit quantized integer types; common floating-point data formats such as float32 , float16 , and bfloat16 ; and 1.56 bit quantization. This file format contains information necessary for running
5742-428: The prompt. Some CLIs, such as those in network routers , have a hierarchy of modes , with a different set of commands supported in each mode. The set of commands are grouped by association with security, system, interface, etc. In these systems the user might traverse through a series of sub-modes. For example, if the CLI had two modes called interface and system , the user might use the command interface to enter
5829-538: The prompt. In DOS' COMMAND.COM and in Windows NT's cmd.exe users can modify the prompt by issuing a PROMPT command or by directly changing the value of the corresponding %PROMPT% environment variable . The default of most modern systems, the C:\>; style is obtained, for instance, with PROMPT $ P$ G . The default of older DOS systems, C> is obtained by just PROMPT , although on some systems this produces
5916-486: The result of improvements in computer hardware . At each stage in hardware's history, the task of computer programming changed dramatically. In 1837, Jacquard's loom inspired Charles Babbage to attempt to build the Analytical Engine . The names of the components of the calculating device were borrowed from the textile industry. In the textile industry, yarn was brought from the store to be milled. The device had
6003-458: The same commands from other command lines (such as the BBC BASIC command line), by preceding the command with a * . A command-line argument or parameter is an item of information provided to a program when it is started. A program can have many command-line arguments that identify sources or destinations of information, or that alter the operation of the program. When a command processor
6090-438: The set of students is a subset of the set of persons. As a result, students inherit all the attributes common to all persons. Additionally, students have unique attributes that other people do not have. Object-oriented languages model subset/superset relationships using inheritance . Object-oriented programming became the dominant language paradigm by the late 1990s. C++ (1985) was originally called "C with Classes". It
6177-467: The smallest and least expensive. Customers could upgrade and retain the same application software . The Model 195 was the most premium. Each System/360 model featured multiprogramming —having multiple processes in memory at once. When one process was waiting for input/output , another could compute. IBM planned for each model to be programmed using PL/1 . A committee was formed that included COBOL , Fortran and ALGOL programmers. The purpose
6264-418: The source code is requested for execution, then the operating system loads the corresponding interpreter into memory and starts a process. The interpreter then loads the source code into memory to translate and execute each statement . Running the source code is slower than running an executable . Moreover, the interpreter must be installed on the computer. The "Hello, World!" program is used to illustrate
6351-430: The synthesis of different programming languages . A programming language is a set of keywords , symbols , identifiers , and rules by which programmers can communicate instructions to the computer. They follow a set of rules called a syntax . Programming languages get their basis from formal languages . The purpose of defining a solution in terms of its formal language is to generate an algorithm to solve
6438-447: The tape back and forth, changing its contents as it performs an algorithm . The machine starts in the initial state, goes through a sequence of steps, and halts when it encounters the halt state. All present-day computers are Turing complete . The Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC) was built between July 1943 and Fall 1945. It was a Turing complete , general-purpose computer that used 17,468 vacuum tubes to create
6525-553: The underlining problem. An algorithm is a sequence of simple instructions that solve a problem. The evolution of programming languages began when the EDSAC (1949) used the first stored computer program in its von Neumann architecture . Programming the EDSAC was in the first generation of programming language . Imperative languages specify a sequential algorithm using declarations , expressions , and statements : FORTRAN (1958)
6612-451: The user terminated by the Enter key , then execute the specified command and provide textual display of results or error messages. Advanced CLIs will validate, interpret and parameter-expand the command line before executing the specified command, and optionally capture or redirect its output. Unlike a button or menu item in a GUI, a command line is typically self-documenting, stating exactly what
6699-410: The user wants done. In addition, command lines usually include many defaults that can be changed to customize the results. Useful command lines can be saved by assigning a character string or alias to represent the full command, or several commands can be grouped to perform a more complex sequence – for instance, compile the program, install it, and run it — creating a single entity, called
6786-605: The user-interface, including fully graphically oriented ones. For example, the default Windows GUI is a shell program named EXPLORER.EXE , as defined in the SHELL=EXPLORER.EXE line in the WIN.INI configuration file. These programs are shells, but not CLIs. Application programs (as opposed to operating systems) may also have command-line interfaces. An application program may support none, any, or all of these three major types of command-line interface mechanisms: Some applications support
6873-448: The wafer to build a matrix of metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) transistors. The MOS transistor is the primary component in integrated circuit chips . Originally, integrated circuit chips had their function set during manufacturing. During the 1960s, controlling the electrical flow migrated to programming a matrix of read-only memory (ROM). The matrix resembled a two-dimensional array of fuses. The process to embed instructions onto
6960-474: Was designed to expand C's capabilities by adding the object-oriented facilities of the language Simula . An object-oriented module is composed of two files. The definitions file is called the header file . Here is a C++ header file for the GRADE class in a simple school application: A constructor operation is a function with the same name as the class name. It is executed when the calling operation executes
7047-410: Was later added. As of November 2024 it has more than 67,000 stars on GitHub. In March 2024 Justine Tunney introduced new optimized matrix multiplication kernels for x86 and ARM CPUs, improving prompt evaluation performance for FP16 and 8-bit quantized data types. These improvements were committed upstream to llama.cpp. Tunney also created a tool called llamafile that bundles models and llama.cpp into
7134-559: Was part of the Multics time-sharing operating system . In 1964, MIT Computation Center staff member Louis Pouzin developed the RUNCOM tool for executing command scripts while allowing argument substitution. Pouzin coined the term shell to describe the technique of using commands like a programming language, and wrote a paper about how to implement the idea in the Multics operating system. Pouzin returned to his native France in 1965, and
7221-436: Was replaced with point-contact transistors (1947) and bipolar junction transistors (late 1950s) mounted on a circuit board . During the 1960s , the aerospace industry replaced the circuit board with an integrated circuit chip . Robert Noyce , co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor (1957) and Intel (1968), achieved a technological improvement to refine the production of field-effect transistors (1963). The goal
7308-405: Was to decompose large projects physically into separate files . A less obvious feature was to decompose large projects logically into abstract data types . At the time, languages supported concrete (scalar) datatypes like integer numbers, floating-point numbers, and strings of characters . Abstract datatypes are structures of concrete datatypes, with a new name assigned. For example,
7395-433: Was to design a language so managers could read the programs. However, the lack of structured statements hindered this goal. COBOL's development was tightly controlled, so dialects did not emerge to require ANSI standards. As a consequence, it was not changed for 15 years until 1974. The 1990s version did make consequential changes, like object-oriented programming . ALGOL (1960) stands for "ALGOrithmic Language". It had
7482-425: Was to develop a language that was comprehensive, easy to use, extendible, and would replace Cobol and Fortran. The result was a large and complex language that took a long time to compile . Computers manufactured until the 1970s had front-panel switches for manual programming. The computer program was written on paper for reference. An instruction was represented by a configuration of on/off settings. After setting
7569-423: Was unveiled as "The IBM Mathematical FORmula TRANslating system". It was designed for scientific calculations, without string handling facilities. Along with declarations , expressions , and statements , it supported: It succeeded because: However, non-IBM vendors also wrote Fortran compilers, but with a syntax that would likely fail IBM's compiler. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) developed
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