Strange Loop Conference | "Axiomatic Language" by Walter Wilson (2013) @StrangeLoopConf | Uploaded February 2021 | Updated October 2024, 1 week ago.
Programming languages are constrained by the need for efficiency. But what kind of language would we want if efficiency could be ignored? Axiomatic language is an answer to this question. It has the following goals: (1) pure specification - you tell the computer what to do without telling it how to do it, (2) minimal, but extensible - nothing is built-in that can be defined, and (3) a metalanguage - able to imitate and thus subsume other languages. Axiomatic language is based on the idea that the external behavior of a program can be defined by an infinite set of symbolic expressions that enumerate all possible inputs, or sequences of inputs, along with the corresponding outputs. The language is just a formal system for defining these symbolic expressions.
Walter Wilson
axiomaticlanguage.org
Walter Wilson is a software developer of CAD/CAM applications at Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth.
Recorded at the Emerging Languages Camp at Strange Loop (https://thestrangeloop.com) in St. Louis, MO, Sep 2013.
Programming languages are constrained by the need for efficiency. But what kind of language would we want if efficiency could be ignored? Axiomatic language is an answer to this question. It has the following goals: (1) pure specification - you tell the computer what to do without telling it how to do it, (2) minimal, but extensible - nothing is built-in that can be defined, and (3) a metalanguage - able to imitate and thus subsume other languages. Axiomatic language is based on the idea that the external behavior of a program can be defined by an infinite set of symbolic expressions that enumerate all possible inputs, or sequences of inputs, along with the corresponding outputs. The language is just a formal system for defining these symbolic expressions.
Walter Wilson
axiomaticlanguage.org
Walter Wilson is a software developer of CAD/CAM applications at Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth.
Recorded at the Emerging Languages Camp at Strange Loop (https://thestrangeloop.com) in St. Louis, MO, Sep 2013.
