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D - Transframe Language

reply Mark Evans <Mark_member pathlink.com> writes:
Transframe, now called ScriptV?  I guess it's gone commercial?  The FAQ below
claims the language is public domain.  ScriptV is used in heavy-duty graphics
work.

There is a comparison with Java and C++ online, withother papers.  What
interests me is the seamless integration of dynamic and static typing.

Mark

http://www.visviva.com/transframe/intro.htm
http://www.visviva.com/transframe/faq/faq2.htm
http://www.transframe.com/developer/home.htm
http://web.archive.org/web/19980222073615/www.transframe.com/forum/forum.htm

'Transframe, yet another language based on C and similar to C++, is designed in
a different philosophy....Transframe unifies hybrid C and C++ concepts and
provides a transformable abstraction vehicle...'

'The Transframe freeze/melt mechanism differs from other dynamic programming
systems which require creation of two separate solutions, a prototype, which is
thrown away, and a product. Magicframe is an integrated environment where the
system evolves to maturity from prototype to product.'

'The language clarifies and unifies many concepts which are obscure or ad hoc in
other programming languages. Examples are nested classes, object references,
array types, and type dependency.'

'The syntax of Transframe follows conventional language design. Instead bringing
about brand new concepts, Transframe provides a natural extension to the
ordinary concepts that have been commonly used by other popular object-oriented
programming languages. The syntax of Transframe is very similar to C++.'

'Transframe is an advanced, modern programming language, designed not only to
support the traditionally recognized software practices and principles such as
safety, portability, modularity, reusability, efficiency, maintainability, and
information hiding, but also to meet the challenge of the future software
development demands such as reflection, meta construction, domain-specificity,
productivity with high-performance, and dynamic parametrism for open designs and
implementations.'

'The design philosophy ... provide[s] ... a simple, transformable framework that
can be adapted to various specific problem domains.'

'Transframe ... achieve[s] the power of dynamic typing for rapid development,
but can also be transformed into static model to preserve the efficiency and
quality of the current static typed languages [C++ and Eiffel runtime speed].
The gap between dynamic programming and static programming vanishes.'
Mar 29 2003
parent reply "Sean L. Palmer" <seanpalmer directvinternet.com> writes:
This looks like it could be a very good language.  I think they really hit
the nail on the head with most aspects of their design.  Many of the
problems they quote from C++ I have run into myself.  They seem to have
elegant solutions.

Have to wait for a compiler to emerge I guess.

Sean

"Mark Evans" <Mark_member pathlink.com> wrote in message
news:b64tvv$64r$1 digitaldaemon.com...

 Transframe, now called ScriptV?  I guess it's gone commercial?  The FAQ


below

 claims the language is public domain.  ScriptV is used in heavy-duty


graphics

 work.

 There is a comparison with Java and C++ online, withother papers.  What
 interests me is the seamless integration of dynamic and static typing.

 Mark

 http://www.visviva.com/transframe/intro.htm
 http://www.visviva.com/transframe/faq/faq2.htm
 http://www.transframe.com/developer/home.htm


http://web.archive.org/web/19980222073615/www.transframe.com/forum/forum.htm
Mar 30 2003
parent reply "Sean L. Palmer" <palmer.sean verizon.net> writes:
I'm curious to know if Walter is actively scouring these links to languages
for design ideas?

Or is it upon us to present design propositions for consideration?

Sean


 http://www.visviva.com/transframe/intro.htm
Mar 30 2003
parent reply Bill Cox <bill viasic.com> writes:
I'd be curious about your thoughts.  The language looks interesting, but 
the whole dynamic typing thing seems to put it in a different place than 
D.  Anything specific catch your eye?

Bill

Sean L. Palmer wrote:

 I'm curious to know if Walter is actively scouring these links to languages
 for design ideas?
 
 Or is it upon us to present design propositions for consideration?
 
 Sean
 
 

http://www.visviva.com/transframe/intro.htm
Mar 31 2003
next sibling parent reply Mark Evans <Mark_member pathlink.com> writes:
Bill you missed the major point of all those snippets I carefully posted for
you.  Transframe supports seamless prototype-to-production work via user control
over the boundaries between dynamic and static typing.  Yes it will build
statically typed programs.

This theme connects to earlier posts about Dylan.

Mark
Mar 31 2003
parent reply Bill Cox <bill viasic.com> writes:
Sean sent me several ideas from Transframe he sees as appealing.  I plan 
to read the spec more carefully when I get the time.  Sean's quick list 
was (hope you don't mind, Sean):

The way it deals with multiple inheritance
The way it unifies templates and subclassing
Its type system is unified (everything is a class or object, even functions,
uninstantiated templates, and basic types)
the way they did basic integers (int derives off one of the bits32 etc basic
bit types, but its actual size is not specified, but is queryable).
They use pascalesque declspecs.  ;)
The freeze/melt scheme sounds interesting.

I understand that you're highlighting the dynamic prototyping concept in 
Transframe.  I'm impressed by it, too.  It's probably the single most 
inovative feature of the language.  Over time, it might prove out to be 
useful, but my intuition says otherwise.  I find I'm nearly as 
productive in a statically typed language as in a dynamically typed one, 
so it seems to me that the potential benifit is quite limited.  The 
additional compiler complexity associated with the feature seems large.

Bill

Mark Evans wrote:

 Bill you missed the major point of all those snippets I carefully posted for
 you.  Transframe supports seamless prototype-to-production work via user
control
 over the boundaries between dynamic and static typing.  Yes it will build
 statically typed programs.
 
 This theme connects to earlier posts about Dylan.
 
 Mark
Mar 31 2003
parent Mark Evans <Mark_member pathlink.com> writes:
Bill the reason I highlighted the type system was your explicit confusion about
it.  I was not proposing dynamic typing for D, just providing help for you, and
those similarly confused.

Everything that Transframe does can be done in 'freeze' or static mode, one
presumes, so its design is worth a look.

Mark
Mar 31 2003
prev sibling parent "Sean L. Palmer" <palmer.sean verizon.net> writes:
I originally posted this privately by mistake. Sorry Bill!
That's not the only mistake I made today.  I inadvertently sent my private
Corporate Annual Self-Review Form to my whole team at work!  Talk about
embarrassing!!  3^{

The specific things I like about Transframe are:

The way it deals with multiple inheritance
The way it unifies templates and subclassing
Its type system is unified (everything is a class or object, even functions,
uninstantiated templates, and basic types)
the way they did basic integers (int derives off one of the bits32 etc basic
bit types, but its actual size is not specified, but is queryable).
They use pascalesque declspecs.  ;)
The freeze/melt scheme sounds interesting.  Basically control per-class or
per-function maybe whether it's optimized or not.  This is doable today but
only per-.obj file, and it's tricky enough that it discourages use.

Those are the things that stick out in my mind the day after.

Sean

"Bill Cox" <bill viasic.com> wrote in message
news:3E87FF06.3000902 viasic.com...

 I'd be curious about your thoughts.  The language looks interesting, but
 the whole dynamic typing thing seems to put it in a different place than
 D.  Anything specific catch your eye?

 Bill

 Sean L. Palmer wrote:

 I'm curious to know if Walter is actively scouring these links to




languages

 for design ideas?

 Or is it upon us to present design propositions for consideration?

 Sean



http://www.visviva.com/transframe/intro.htm
Mar 31 2003