A plus plus

The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. The correct title is A++.

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 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: 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++

The purpose of A++ is not to be used as a programming language to write applications for the needs of the real world. Nevertheless it is possible to write simple application programs in A++ like object oriented implementations of a simple account handling and a library management system.

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

• ARS based programming
• Educational programming language
• ARS++