[Axiom-developer] RE: [Aldor-l] exports and constants

[Bill Page]

On July 24, 2006 1:15 PM Ralf Hemmecke wrote:
> ... 
> What I wanted to demonstrate is that "A add {...}" has a type 
> and is a value of its own.

Hmmm... in Aldor values do not have types. "A add {...}" is
an "add expression".

> 
> But if used in a context like "X: CatX == ... " it does 
> matter whether there is an "add" *explicitly* appearing on
> the right hand side. That is not just an ordinary assignment
> of constants, i.e.
> 
> constName: SomeType == somevalue;
> 
> I can live with that, and it is probably a good thing, but
> I think to figure out the difference of
> 
> X: CatX == Dom;
> and
> X: CatX == Dom add;
> 
> is not something obvious. Be honest, who has read the AUG and 
> could have explained the difference?

The concept of inheritance in Aldor is obviously very important.
In an add-expression the domain appearing to the left of 'add'
is called the parent domain. This is described in the users
guide.

> There is certainly need for more documentation.

I do agree with that!

I was wondering: If we put the current Aldor Users guide up on the
Axiom Wiki, would there be any people willing to review, extend
and update it? After all, that kind of collaboration is what wikis
are supposed to especially good for, right?

> 
> But that brings me to another question. In order to figure 
> out what the Aldor language actually is, there is only the AUG
> to consult. If that is imprecise, who is going to have the last
> word if it comes to implement the details in the compiler? We
> certainly do not want different versions of the Aldor language.
> 

>From this site:

http://hopl.murdoch.edu.au/showlanguage.prx?exp=1777

I found a reference to the following document:

S.M. Watt, A# Language Reference, V 0.35, IBM Research Report 19530,
1994

It is also referenced here [24] in:

A First Report on the A# Compiler

http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~watt/pub/reprints/1994-ibmtr-asharp.pdf
http://portal.acm.org/ft_gateway.cfm?id=190356&type=pdf&coll=portal&dl=ACM&C
FID=15151515&CFTOKEN=6184618

Unfortunately I have not been able to find a copy of this anywhere
on the web.

If someone has an electronic version or a copy of this in their
paper files would you be prepared to scan it and upload it for us?

Regards,
Bill Page.