Professional Adventure Writing System, a high-level programming language designed for creating interactive fiction (that is, text adventures).

Used mainly during the times of the Spectrum, very few people dare to use it now, mainly because of its lack of portability and its odd syntax, which doesn't resemble any standard procedural language. Inform is the most popular alternative, but PAWSlike languages survive thanks to retro users and non-programmers which may find its constructs easier than the tyical ifs and whiles.

Note: this is NOT the same as Python Adventure Writing System, which is more recent.