A plus plus

A++ stands for abstraction plus reference plus synthesis
which is used as a name for the minimalistic programming language
that is built on ARS.

ARS is an abstraction from the Lambda Calculus, taking its three basic
operations, and giving them a more general meaning, thus providing a
foundation for the three major programming paradigms: functional programming,
object-oriented programming and imperative programming.

ARS Based Programming is used as a name for programming
which consists mainly of applying patterns derived from ARS,
to programming in any language.

History

A++ has been developed in 2002 with the purpose to serve as a
learning instrument rather than as a programming language used to solve practical problems.

It is supposed to be an efficient tool to become familiar with
the core of programming and with programming patterns
that can be applied in other languages needed to face the real world.

What it can Do

A++ with its interpreter available in Scheme, Java, C, C++ and Python offers an ideal environment for basic training in programming, enforcing rigorous confrontation with the essentials of programming languages.

Official Website and Information

The language is introduced on the Web Site:
www.aplusplus.net and is fully
covered in the book A++ -- The Smallest Programming Language in the World
published in 2004 with the following
ISBN 3-87820-116-8. It is also described in the book 'Programmierung pur' ('Undiluted Programming') published under the ISBN 3-87820-108-7.

Constitutive Principles of A++

• ARS (basic operations)
• * Abstraction
• * + Reference
• * + Synthesis
• Lexical Scope
• Closure

  Programming Paradigms Supported by A++

• Functional programming, (directly supported)
• * (writing expressions to be evaluated),
• Object-oriented programming (directly supported)
• *(sending messages to objects),
• Imperative programming (directly supported)
• *(writing statements to be executed), including structured programming.
• Logic programming (indirectly supported)
• *(rule based programming)
  

  Core Features of A++

• Logical abstractions
• *(true, false, if, not, and, or),
• Numerical abstractions
• *(natural numbers, zerop, succ, pred, add, sub, mult),
• Relational abstractions,
• *(equalp, gtp, ltp, gep)
• Recursion,
• Creation and processing of lists
• *(cons, car, cdr, nil, nullp, llength, remove, nth, assoc),
• Higher order functions
• *(compose, curry, map, mapc, map2, filter, locate, for-each),
• Set operations
• *(memberp, union, addelt),
• Iterative control structure
• *('while').
  

  Development of Applications with A++

To write real world application programs the language ARS++
is provided, which extends A++ to a language similar to
Scheme. ARS++ is derived from ARS plus Scheme plus Extensions.

The book Programmierung pur, at present only available in
German under the ISBN 3-87820-108-7, presents A++, its usage
and implementation in detail and shows as well how programming
in languages like ARS++, Scheme, Java, Python, C and C++
can be done in the spirit of A++.

The next edition of the book
will include Perl as well, a powerful programming language
in which ARS Based Programming can be applied as easily as
in Scheme.

See also