A♯ (Axiom)
A♯ (pronounced: A sharp) is an object-oriented functional programming language distributed as a separable component of Version 2 of the Axiom computer algebra system. A# types and functions are first-class values and can be used freely together with an extensive library of data structures and other mathematical abstractions. A key design guideline for A# was suitability of compiling to portable and efficient machine code. It is distributed as free and open-source software under a BSD-like license.[1]
| Paradigm | Multi-paradigm: object-oriented, functional |
|---|---|
| Designed by | Richard Dimick Jenks, Barry Trager, Stephen M. Watt, James Davenport, Robert Sutor, Scott Morrison |
| Developer | Thomas J. Watson Research Center |
| First appeared | 1971 |
| Stable release | Gold
/ November 2008 |
| Preview release | Silver
/ July 31, 2014 |
| Platform | Cross-platform (16-32-64-bit): RS/6000, SPARC, Alpha, IA-32, Intel 286, Motorola 680x0, System/370 |
| OS | Cross-platform: Linux, AIX, SunOS, HP-UX, NeXT, Mach, OS/2, DOS, Windows, VMS, VM/CMS |
| License | BSD-like |
| Filename extensions | .as |
| Website | axiom-developer |
| Influenced by | |
| Pascal, Haskell | |
| Influenced | |
| Aldor | |
Development of A# has now changed to the programming language Aldor.
A# has both an optimising compiler, and an intermediate code interpreter. The compiler can emit any of:
- Executable stand-alone programs
- Libraries, of native operating system format objects, or of portable bytecode
- Source code, for languages C, or Lisp
The following C compilers are supported: GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), Xlc, Oracle Developer Studio, Borland, Metaware, and MIPS C.
References
- "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)". Axiom: The Scientific Computation System. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
- Stephen M. Watt; Peter A. Broadbery; Samuel S. Dooley; Pietro Iglio; Scott C. Morrison; Jonathan M. Steinbach; Robert S. Sutor (1994-07-20). "A First Report on the A♯ Compiler" (PDF). IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center. p. 7. Retrieved 2013-01-06.
This article is based on material taken from A# at 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.