Announcing setl, a New Project Hosted at Google Code

I have started a new Google Code project, setl, to pursue work on SETL.

The immediate goal is to provide a high-quality SETL compiler, based on Python and written in Python. The project will also attempt to collect many algorithms written in SETL, including, for example, an executable specification of Andrew “Tridge” Tridgell’s rsync algorithm.

Simply put, SETL (SET Language), is the best programming language yet created. Based on the theory of finite sets, it allows for the executable specification of algorithms at a very abstract level. SETL permits specifying the essence of an algorithm in its purest form, without the intrusive details found in lesser programming languages.

SETL was created in 1969 by the late Prof. Jacob T. “Jack” Schwartz of NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (CIMS). I was the second project member. I wrote the first SETL implementation. I was also the principal designer and implementor of LITTLE, a FORTRAN-like language that was used to write several SETL implementations. I worked on the SETL project until 1987, including leading the effort to translate NYU/AdaEd, the world’s first validated Ada compiler, from SETL to C, work that resulted in the first validated Ada compiler for the IBM PC-AT.

SETL is best viewed as an extension of Python. Python is a subset of SETL, so every valid Python program is also a valid SETL program.

All interested parties are invited to join.

Those old-timers like myself who once worked on the SETL project are invited to join as charter members.

I have also started a new group at LinkedIN, SETL Programming Language.

thanks,
dave