books-programmingLanguages-programmingLanguagesChMiscConstructs

Table of Contents for Programming Languages: a survey

Chapter : misc

main

in some languages, e.g. Python, any code in the outermost lexical scope is run as it is encountered; so the 'main' top-level program code is typically put at the bottom of a file, so that it will be run after everything above it (which imports and defines relevant functions and data structures) finishes.

in other languages, e.g. C, a special 'main' function must be explicitly defined, and this is the only thing which is run when the program executes (in contrast with running everything in the outermost lexical scope).

constraint satisfaction

(and logic programming)

(this deserves its own chapter, at least)

grammar

(as a Turing-universal alternative)

(this probably deserves its own chapter too)

knowledge representation and inference

RDF, etc

other stuff from ai goes here? inheritance networks?

computer ontologies

(todo)

also note: different languages have different paradigms and corresponding ontologies, e.g. smalltalk has actors and messages, etc

contrast to philosophical ontologies

what else?

should i put an appeal to look at natural language used in informal explanation of algorithms somewhere? "this guy sees __ and wants __ so he goes over here..." etc?

characteristics: