Aldor(ID:6911/ald005)

Language for Axiom (nee Scratchpad), which belonged to NAG, but now is run by the Axiom Consortium.
Related languages
AXIOM 2 => Aldor   Subsystem

Resources
  • Axiom is alive!
    What is Axiom?


    Axiom is a general purpose Computer Algebra system. It is useful for research and development of mathematical algorithms. It defines a strongly typed, mathematically correct type hierarchy. It has a programming language and a built-in compiler.


    Axiom has been in development since 1971. At that time, it was called Scratchpad. Scratchpad was a large, general purpose computer algebra system that was originally developed by IBM under the direction of Richard Jenks. The project started in 1971 and evolved slowly. Barry Trager was key to the technical direction of the project. Scratchpad developed over a 20 year stretch and was basically considered as a research platform for developing new ideas in computational mathematics. In the 1990s, as IBM's fortunes slid, the Scratchpad project was renamed to Axiom, sold to the Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG) in England and became a commercial system. As part of the Scratchpad project at IBM in Yorktown Tim Daly worked on all aspects of the system and eventually helped transfer the product to NAG. For a variety of reasons it never became a financial success and NAG withdrew it from the market in October, 2001.


    NAG agreed to release Axiom as free software. The basic motivation was that Axiom represents something different from other programs in a lot of ways. Primarily because of its foundation in mathematics the Axiom system will potentially be useful 30 years from now. In its current state it represents about 30 years and 300 man-years of research work. To strive to keep such a large collection of knowledge alive seems a worthwhile goal.


    Efforts are underway to extend this software to (a) develop a better user interface (b) make it useful as a teaching tool (c) develop an algebra server protocol (d) integrate additional mathematics (e) rebuild the algebra in a literate programming style (f) integrate logic programming (g) develop an Axiom Journal with refereed submissions.

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  • Aldor is a computer programming language
    Aldor is a computer programming language, like Scheme, Java or C#.


    This site provides information about the Aldor programming language, its compiler and libraries, as well as downloads for software and documentation.


    From a technical point of perspective, Aldor is a type-complete, strongly-typed, imperative programming language with a two-level object model of categories and domains (similar to the concept of interfaces and classes in Java). Types and functions are first class entities allowing them to be constructed and manipulated within Aldor programs just like any other value. Pervasive use of dependent types allows static checking of dynamic objects and provides object-oriented features such as parametric polymorphism.  


    What does this mean for a normal user? Aldor solves many difficulties encountered with certain widely-used object-oriented programming languages. It allows programs to use a natural style, combining the more attractive and powerful properties of functional, object-oriented and aspect-oriented styles.

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