Path: news.cs.au.dk!not-for-mail From: "Brian T. Rice" Newsgroups: comp.lang.beta Subject: A Self / BETA Language Hybrid Project Date: 12 Jan 2000 08:37:26 -0000 Organization: University of Aarhus, Department of Computer Science (DAIMI) Lines: 41 Approved: mailtonews@cs.au.dk Distribution: world Message-ID: <20000112083726.8495.qmail@noatun.mjolner.dk> Reply-To: "Brian T. Rice" NNTP-Posting-Host: daimi.cs.au.dk X-Trace: xinwen.cs.au.dk 947666271 11119283 255.255.255.255 (12 Jan 2000 08:37:51 GMT) X-Complaints-To: news@cs.au.dk NNTP-Posting-Date: 12 Jan 2000 08:37:51 GMT Xref: news.cs.au.dk comp.lang.beta:12212 Hello all, I am a relative stranger to this list, but I have been following the BETA language and the Mjolner company developments for the last few years, since I am interested in advanced programming languages and their design. It is definitely one of the most impressive static language designs that I have encountered. I'd like to announce a new programming language project called Slate (http://www.tunes.org/~water/slate-home.html) that attempts to take the best of the Self and BETA programming languages, and provide a coherent framework for these ideas. Although the language will primarily be dynamic in the style of Self, it will also extensively use the benefits of pattern-programming and the various abstractions that BETA has shown to be so useful. The language will also incorporate the abstract syntax tree (similar to Lisp's SEXP notation) structure and a functional character for its object semantics. This will allow for some cleaner semantics and better meta-programming facilities within the language itself than are available for other object-oriented languages. Finally, the language will follow the tradition of Smalltalk-80 by hosting its own interpreter system, compiler, and user-interface. In fact, we plan to implement a user interface consisting of direct manipulation of language patterns according to semantics adjustible through reflective programming. This will in fact form a language and environment that is programmable by visual gestures and representations alone. Well, I brought this to your attention as a modest request for feedback on the idea as well as to help identify interested parties. If you are interested, please contact me via e-mail, and I will be happy to send you more information and answer any questions you may have. We also invite people to assist in the development of the language and its environment. Currently, there is a partially complete prototype of the language system under Common Lisp, and plans include adapting the Squeak project's smalltalk virtual machine sources generated from smalltalk code to support Slate language primitives and the graphics system. As soon as we produce a language implementation that completely fulfills the language technical requirements, we plan on releasing the source code and environment under the GPL to open up development possibilities. Sincerely, Brian T. Rice email: water@tunes.org