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List of Names
Short Form
Full Form
-
Oz
- Language type:
- Description:
Oz 2 is a declarative
concurrent programming language
that supports object-oriented and
functional
programming with constraint propagation.
It was created as a research
vehicle for advanced language design, AI,
and concurrent system design.
Primitive simple data types in Oz include
integers,
reals, characters, strings, booleans, atoms,
threads, objects, and functions.
The language also supports a flexible set
of aggregate types: records, tuples, lists,
and arrays.
All predefined Oz types are arranged in a
type hierarchy, and inheritance relationships
in the hierarchy can be used as part of the
type system and constraint rules.
Oz supports the usual sequential control
structures, like conditionals and loops, as
well as parallel versions of them. It also
has exception handling constructs.
The Oz object system supports encapsulation,
inheritance, generics, and other OOP features.
Like most functional languages, Oz has
full automatic memory management and
garbage collection. Like most
parallel programming languages, it has
synchronization primitives for serializing
access to objects. Thread creation in
Oz 2 is always explicit.
Oz uses a constraint programming system
called finite domain constraint
propagation. Constraint propagation
runs concurrently with other program
activities.
Oz 2 has been implemented on Unix systems
and Windows, a distribution may be obtained
from DKFI in Germany. Good documentation is
available at the language's web site.
- Origin:
G. Smolka with Schulte, Henz, Muller, Wurtz et al, DFKI, 1994-97.
- See Also:
- Remarks:
The current Oz language is Oz 2.0. The
original Oz 1 was less capable and
somewhat different than its successor,
in that it had an extremely fine-grain
concurrency model, and a much less
capable constraint propagation system.
Oz 3, which is under development, is
supposed to be a lot like Oz 2.
Oz 2 supports GUI programming by allowing
calls to the Tk graphics toolkit.
- Links:
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- Date:
- Sample code:
Descriptions in this dictionary are ©1997-99 Neal Ziring. Some
examples copyright of their respective authors. Some
technologies and languages are trademarked. Permission to
copy descriptions is granted as long as authorship credit is preserved.
Comments on this dictionary, corrections and suggestions, are all welcome.
Please use email, the address is ziring@home.com
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Dictionary and script maintained by Neal Ziring, last major modifications 3/18/98. Most recent
additions to dictionary and master list, 1/00.