Areal data types in instrumental approach to programming

For a large amount of tasks classical structured programming approach is preferred to object-oriented one. These preferences are typical for deterministic world and in machine-representation-oriented systems. A modular Oberon programming language was oriented on such tasks. It demonstrate minimalistic way of reliability, which differs from vast majority of program systems maximizing amount of features supported. Usage of instrumental approach instead of OOP was proposed before for solving the problems of deterministic world. The data-code separation principle assumes that data lifecycle is independently controlled, and lifetime duration is longer then code lifetime. The areal data types proposed by author are aimed for implementation within instrumental approach. Areal data types provide orthogonal persistency and are integrated with codes, defined in types hierarchy for instruments. Areal data types are embodied in MultiOberon system compilers. Reference to address conversion methods are based on runtime system metadata. Areal types integration resulted in developing additional test in MultiOberon. MultiOberon restrictive semantics makes an opportunity to turn off pointer usage permissions and switch on areal types usage. Areal is fixed for specifically marked data type. Areal references are implemented as persistent ones in areal array. Due to such paradigm the problem of persistence reference during software restarts was solved. Novelty in work is using areal references which gains in index type and pointer type advantages. Such approach implements principles of generic programming without creating dependencies of types extensions and template specifications. An example of generic sorting algorithm is provided for areal types. A new data type differs with compactness and simplicity in comparison to dynamic structures. It demonstrates advantages for systems with complex technological objects data structures in relatively static bounds.

areal types, instrumental approach, Oberon, semantic restrictions, orthogonal persistency, compiler, modularity, data oriented programming, informatika-21, metadata