SAC programming language

SAC (Single Assignment C) is a strict <a href="/facts/Purely_functional_programming/am3DcNAd">purely functional</a> <a href="/facts/Programming_language/cWTYbgWa">programming language</a> whose design is focused on the needs of numerical applications. Emphasis is laid on efficient support for <a href="/facts/Array_processing/97cb0hmk">array processing</a> via <a href="/facts/Data_parallelism/SkYoL91S">data parallelism</a>. Efficiency concerns are essentially twofold. On the one hand, efficiency in program development is to be improved by the opportunity to specify array operations on a high level of <a href="/facts/Abstraction/p7l9eHGd">abstraction</a>. On the other hand, efficiency in program execution, i.e. the runtime performance of programs, in time and memory consumption, is still to be achieved by sophisticated <a href="/facts/Compiler/WNfCDFJe">compilation</a> schemes. Only as far as the latter succeeds, the high-level style of specifications can actually be called useful.
To facilitate compiling to efficiently executable code, certain functional language features which are not considered essential for numerical applications, e.g. higher-order functions, <a href="/facts/Polymorphism_(computer_science)/S3cCKsVT">polymorphism</a>, or <a href="/facts/Lazy_evaluation/mD3DxDkc">lazy evaluation</a>, are not (yet) supported by SAC. These may be found in general-purpose functional languages, e.g. <a href="/facts/Haskell_(programming_language)/4Htv9WLu">Haskell</a>, <a href="/facts/Clean_programming_language/vvxRMVyz">Clean</a>, <a href="/facts/Miranda_programming_language/t9A6GFYv">Miranda</a>, or <a href="/facts/ML_programming_language/RfwxASRF">ML</a>.
To overcome the acceptance problems encountered by other functional or array based languages intended for numerical / array intensive applications, e.g. <a href="/facts/SISAL/n8PmrsML">SISAL</a>, <a href="/facts/NESL/dfXmdQE1">NESL</a>, <a href="/facts/Nial/FhP4GGyJ">Nial</a>, <a href="/facts/APL_programming_language/E2sb98gC">APL</a>, <a href="/facts/J_programming_language/EdIVMBj7">J</a>, or <a href="/facts/K_programming_language/4Apv0CXC">K</a>, particular regard is paid to ease the transition from a <a href="/facts/C_(programming_language)/Ky2No763">C</a> / <a href="/facts/Fortran/m1KqjcMU">Fortran</a> like programming environment to SAC.
In more detail, the basic language design goals of SAC are to:

<ul><li>provide a purely functional language with a syntax very similar to that of C in order to ease, for a large community of programmers, the transition from an imperative to a functional programming style;</li>
<li>support multi-dimensional arrays as first class objects;</li>
<li>allow the specification of shape- and dimension-invariant array operations;</li>
<li>provide high-level array operations that liberate programming from tedious and error-prone specifications of starts, stops and strides for array traversals thereby improving <a href="/facts/Code_reuse/DVohfy6U">code reusability</a> and <a href="/facts/Programming_productivity/EH2cnWvG">programming productivity</a>, in general.</li>
<li>incorporate a module system that allows for separate compilation, separate name spaces, and abstract data types, and, additionally, provides an interface to foreign languages in order to enable reuse of existing code;</li>
<li>provide means for a smooth integration of states and state modifications into the functional paradigm based on <a href="/facts/Uniqueness_type/3w8xLuEe">uniqueness types</a>;</li>
<li>use the module system, the foreign language interface, and the integration of states in order to create a standard library which provides a functionality similar to that of the standard C libraries, e.g. powerful I/O facilities or mathematical functions;</li>
<li>facilitate the compilation to host machine code which can be efficiently executed both in terms of time and space demand;</li>
<li>facilitate the compilation for non-sequential program execution in <a href="/facts/Multiprocessor/aDCfehDQ">multiprocessor</a> environments.</li></ul>

<ul><li>Scholz, Sven-Bodo (1996). Single Assignment C — Entwurf Und Implementierung Einer Funktionalen C-variante Mit Spezieller Unterstützung Shape-invarianter Array-operationen [Single Assignment C — Design and Implementation of a Functional C-variant with Special Support for Shape-invariant Array Operations] (PhD) (in German). Institute of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany.</li>
<li>Grelck, Clemens (2001). Implicit Shared Memory Multiprocessor Support for the Functional Programming Language SaC — Single Assignment C (PhD). Institute of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 3-89722-719-3.{{cite thesis}}: CS1 maint: ignored ISBN errors (link)</li></ul>

SAC programming language open-in-new

SAC programming language