Path: news.net.uni-c.dk!not-for-mail From: Flemming Gram Christensen Newsgroups: comp.lang.beta Subject: Re: Is BETA for me? Date: 14 Feb 2001 10:49:43 +0100 Organization: UNI-C Lines: 58 Message-ID: References: <20010210173539.26827.00000464@ng-mh1.aol.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: bifrost.mjolner.dk X-Trace: news.net.uni-c.dk 982144187 16252 130.225.4.254 (14 Feb 2001 09:49:47 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@news.net.uni-c.dk NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2001 09:49:47 +0000 (UTC) X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.7/Emacs 20.4 Xref: news.net.uni-c.dk comp.lang.beta:12709 dvdavins@aol.com (DvdAvins) writes: > I'm planning to write a program for myself which, if I'm happy with the way it > turns out, I will likely distribute as shareware. I'm looking for as many of > the following traits as possible: Thank you for considering BETA. > > 1:a functional language. I've been intrigued by functional languages for a > while, but have had no occasion to use them at work. BETA is not a pure functional language, but has some of the facilities like higher order classes(types) and functions. A pattern is a unification of class/type and procedure/function. Patterns may be first-class values (through the pattern variable mechanism), which means that patterns (classes/types and procedures/functions) may be passed as arguments to procedures/functions and returned as values. The basic style supported by BETA is, however object-oriented, so if you want to experiment with a pure functional language you should not use BETA. > 2: automatic garbage collection and other programmers' convenience features (I > still have to take care of my day job) The BETA implementation provided by Mjolner includes garbage collection based on generational scavenging. In addition there is a large library of frameworks. > 3: support for objects (not necessary, just a convenience) Yes - As mentioned BETA is an OO language. > 4: it MUST be distributable as a stand-alone program for Windows. I'd like to > be able to distribute to Mac and Linux as well. The same BETA source can be compiled and run on Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Solaris, SGI/MIPS-Unix and HP-Unix (hpuxpa). The program will be distributable as a single executable. > > I'm investigating at M, Python, BETA, Scheme, Haskell, Icon, and Common Lisp. > Which would you use? Why? If you decide to use BETA, please feel free to ask questions. Regards Flemming. -- Flemming Gram Christensen, M.Sc., Software Engineer, Mjølner Informatics ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mjolner Informatics A/S Phone: +45 70 27 43 43 Helsingforsgade 27 Fax: +45 70 27 43 44 DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark E-mail: gram@mjolner.dk ------------------------------------------------------------------------