Alice Programming System Released

[Andreas Rossberg]

We are happy to announce the first release of the Alice programming
system:

        http://www.ps.uni-sb.de/alice/

Alice is a functional programming language bridging the gap
between the statically typed, functional world of ML and the
dynamically typed world of concurrent constraint programming as
found in Oz. Alice combines the most appreciated features from
both worlds.

>From Standard ML it inherits:

    Functional core language
	seamless higher-order functional programming in a
	well-established syntax
    Polymorphic type system
	strong static typing with automatic type inference
    Higher-order modules
	parameterization and encapsulation via type abstraction
    Simplicity
	high expressiveness with few orthogonal language
	constructs
    Compatibility
	access to a large pool of libraries and introductory
	literature

>From Oz it inherits:

    Futures
	laziness and light-weight concurrency with implicit
	dataflow synchronisation
    Components
        platform-independent higher-order persistence and
        lazy dynamic linking
    Distribution
	network transparent mobility with fault tolerance
    Constraints
	concurrent constraints and programmable search
	for combinatorical problems
    Interactive tools
	browsers for data structures and search spaces
    Interoperability
	application development in mixed ML/Oz environment

Alice also provides features not found in either language:

    Promises
	safer "logic variables" with separated read/write view
    Runtime typing
	type-safe linking, persistence and inter-process
	communication
    Packages
	typeful modules as first-class values

Alice is based on the Mozart system. Alice applications can hence
import Oz components ("functors"), and vice versa. Interoperation
works smoothly down to the level of individual data structures.

For more information, please visit the Alice project homepage:

        http://www.ps.uni-sb.de/alice/

Enjoy,

	- The Alice Team
-
Please send submissions to announce at mozart-oz.org
and administriva mail to announce-request at mozart-oz.org.
The Mozart Oz web site is at http://www.mozart-oz.org/.