Modula-2, Modula-3, Whatever.

As was pointed out to me a long time ago, it doesn't take much to open a worm can -- particularly when it involves programming languages.

So if you recall my comments a while back regarding COBOL and the suggestion -- okay, I actually said it -- that "COBOL's main claim to fame is its distinction of possessing the only programming language whose standard defines handling of decimal currency".

It didn't take long to hear from people who actually knew what they were talking about. For instance, Mike Cowlishaw pointed out that PL/I and Rexx are ANSI Standards and both have decimal datatypes. Likewise, C# and VB.NET have standard decimal types.

More recently, Dennis Ludwig pointed out that Ada also has types that can be used for currency. And I don't think he's even seen -- and therefore had a chance to correct -- my recent posting on Ada.

What with all this, you'd think I'd have enough sense to keep my mouth shut. Ha! Then you don't know me that well.

So the programming language of the day today is a new release of Modula-2 -- make that Modula-3. (Come on now, when was the last time you read anything about Modula-whatever?) In any event, Elego Software Solutions has released its Critical Mass Modula-3 5.4.0. Modula-3 is a systems programming language that descends from Mesa, Modula-2, Cedar, and Modula-2+. The goal of Modula-3 is to be as simple and safe as it can be while meeting the needs of modern systems programmers. Modula-3 retains one of Modula-2's most successful features -- the provision for explicit interfaces between modules. It adds objects and classes, exception handling, garbage collection, lightweight processes (or threads), and the isolation of unsafe features.

And Modula-3 is open source and freely distributable.

This particular CM3 5.4.0 release contains several enhancements over previous versions:

• Updated code generator based on gcc 3.4.5
• use of generational/incremental garbage collection by default via compiler support
• System call wrappers not needed anymore for garbage collection support
• Support of system-level threading
• Updated m3gdb debugger

And the platforms that CM3 5.4.0 supports include: FreeBSD4, LINUXLIBC6, SOLgnu, PPC_DARWIN, and NetBSD2_i386.

Okay, it's your turn. The line forms back here.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 02:33 PM  Permalink