The Subset-equational language (SEL) is a declarative programming language for set processing, written by Bharat Jayaraman.
Features include:
- subset and equational program clauses.
- pattern matching over sets (supporting efficient iteration over sets).
- annotations to say which functions distribute over union in which arguments (for point-wise/incremental computation over sets).
- defining transitive closures through circular constraints (implemented by mixed top-down/memoisation and bottom-up strategy).
- metaprogramming and simple higher-order programming.
- modest user-interface including tracing.
The SEL compiler, written in Quintus Prolog, generates WAM-like code, extended to deal with set-matching, memoisation, and the novel control structure of the language. The run-time system is written in C.
This article is based on material taken from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing prior to 1 November 2008 and incorporated under the "relicensing" terms of the GFDL, version 1.3 or later.
Famous quotes containing the word language:
“Philosophy is written in this grand book—I mean the universe—
which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it.”
—Galileo Galilei (1564–1642)