Limbo (programming language)

<h2 id="language-features">Language features</h2>
<p>Limbo supports the following features:
</p>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Modularity_(programming)/sNoqKvRD">modular programming</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Concurrent_programming/yVzQBPr9">concurrent programming</a></li>
<li>strong <a href="/facts/Type_checking/Tz0bAMS9">type checking</a> at compile and run-time</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Interprocess_communication/cIQYyT6y">interprocess communication</a> over typed <a href="/facts/Channel_(programming)/CCzdotLE">channels</a></li>
<li>automatic <a href="/facts/Garbage_collection_(computer_science)/j2vlIu7g">garbage collection</a></li>
<li>simple <a href="/facts/Abstract_data_type/BaVGSHNP">abstract data types</a></li></ul>
<h2 id="virtual-machine">Virtual machine</h2>
<p>The Dis virtual machine that executes Limbo code is a CISC-like VM, with instructions for arithmetic, <a href="/facts/Control_flow/2XTDfErC">control flow</a>, data motion, <a href="/facts/Process_(computing)/Vcq7EnUV">process</a> creation, synchronizing and communicating between processes, loading modules of code, and support for higher-level data-types: strings, arrays, lists, and communication channels.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> It uses a hybrid of <a href="/facts/Reference_counting/jbPcXuXe">reference counting</a> and a <a href="/facts/Real-time_computing/p9HxgL4L">real-time</a> <a href="/facts/Garbage_collection_(computer_science)/j2vlIu7g">garbage-collector</a> for cyclic data.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a>
</p><p>Aspects of the design of Dis were inspired by the <a href="/facts/AT%2526T_Hobbit/JdaLF6ee">AT&T Hobbit</a> microprocessor, as used in the original <a href="/facts/BeBox/sWcNrA8V">BeBox</a>.
</p>
<h2 id="examples">Examples</h2>
<p>Limbo uses <a href="/facts/Ada_(programming_language)/Y2yHel4l">Ada</a>-style definitions as in:
</p>
name := type value;
name0,name1 : type = value;
name2,name3 : type;
name2 = value;

<h3>Hello world</h3>
implement Command;

include "sys.m";
    sys: Sys;

include "draw.m";

include "sh.m";

init(nil: ref Draw->Context, nil: list of string)
{
    sys = load Sys Sys->PATH;
    sys->print("Hello World!\n");
}

<h2 id="books">Books</h2>
<p>The 3rd edition of the Inferno operating system and Limbo programming language are described in the textbook <i>Inferno Programming with Limbo</i>  <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 0-470-84352-7 (Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2003), by Phillip Stanley-Marbell.  Another textbook <i>The Inferno Programming Book: An Introduction to Programming for the Inferno Distributed System</i>, by  Martin Atkins, Charles Forsyth, <a href="/facts/Rob_Pike/K5R9UoSH">Rob Pike</a> and Howard Trickey, was started, but never released.
</p>
<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul>
<li>Free and open-source software portal</li></ul>
<ul><li>The <a href="/facts/Inferno_(operating_system)/baKPoWRU">Inferno</a> operating system</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Alef_(programming_language)/NgzC2SA2">Alef</a>, the predecessor of Limbo</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Plan_9_from_Bell_Labs/pQjPlS7w">Plan 9 from Bell Labs</a>, operating system</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Go_(programming_language)/oWlsmAFJ">Go</a>, similar language from Google</li>
<li><a href="/facts/AT%2526T_Hobbit/JdaLF6ee">AT&T Hobbit</a>, a processor architecture which inspired the Dis VM</li></ul>

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
<ul><li><a href="http://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/limbo.html">Vita Nuova page on Limbo</a></li>
<li><a href="http://doc.cat-v.org/inferno/4th_edition/limbo_language/descent">A Descent into Limbo</a> by <a href="/facts/Brian_Kernighan/oW3I7FWJ">Brian Kernighan</a></li>
<li><a href="http://doc.cat-v.org/inferno/4th_edition/limbo_language/limbo">The Limbo Programming Language</a> by <a href="/facts/Dennis_M._Ritchie/I1yu1UWU">Dennis M. Ritchie</a> and <a href="http://doc.cat-v.org/inferno/4th_edition/limbo_language/addendum">Addendum</a> by Vita Nuova.</li>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20081011054044/http://www.gemusehaken.org/ipwl/">Inferno Programming with Limbo</a> by Phillip Stanley-Marbell</li>
<li><a href="http://swtch.com/~rsc/thread/">Threaded programming in the Bell Labs CSP style</a></li>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170921095053/https://bitbucket.org/inferno-os/inferno-os/src/62ae0f75aa714c7bab5e714fcf90f4026b7ba911/limbo/?at=default"><i>Dis source code</i></a>, archived from <a href="https://bitbucket.org/inferno-os/inferno-os/src/62ae0f75aa714c7bab5e714fcf90f4026b7ba911/limbo/?at=default">the original</a> on 2017-09-21, retrieved 2017-09-20</li>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250211084729/https://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/papers/hotchips.html"><i>The design of the Inferno virtual machine</i></a>, Vita nuova.</li>
<li>"Dis VM design", <a href="http://doc.cat-v.org/inferno/4th_edition/dis_VM_design"><i>Inferno</i></a> (4th ed.), Cat V.</li>
<li>"Dis VM specification", <a href="http://doc.cat-v.org/inferno/4th_edition/dis_VM_specification"><i>Inferno</i></a> (4th ed.), Cat V.</li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>"Inferno Application Programming". vitanuova. vitanuova. Retrieved January 26, 2021. <a href="http://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/limbo.html" target="_blank">http://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/limbo.html</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>"Dis Virtual Machine Specification". Vita Nuova. 2000. Retrieved 2 February 2015. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250220003220/https://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/papers/dis.html" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20250220003220/https://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/papers/dis.html</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>Lorenz Huelsbergen and Phil Winterbottom (1998). "Very Concurrent Mark and Sweep Garbage Collection without Fine-Grain Synchronization" (PDF). 1998 International Symposium on Memory Management. <a href="http://doc.cat-v.org/inferno/concurrent_gc/concurrent_gc.pdf" target="_blank">http://doc.cat-v.org/inferno/concurrent_gc/concurrent_gc.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

Limbo (programming language) open-in-new

Limbo (programming language)