A facility for defining and manipulating generalized data structures

Abstract

A data structure definition facility (DSDF) is described that provides definitions for several primitive data types, homogeneous and heterogeneous arrays, cells, stacks, queues, trees, and general lists. Each nonprimitive data structure consists of two separate entities-a head and a body. The head contains the entry point(s) to the body of the structure; by treating the head like a cell, the DSDF operations are capable of creating and manipulating very general data structures. A template structure is described that permits data structures to share templates.The primary objectives of the DSDF are: (1) to develop a definition facility that permits the programmer to explicitly define and manipulate generalized data structures in a consistent manner, (2) to detect mistakea and prevent the programmer from creating (either inadvertently or intentionally) undesirable (or illegal) data structures, (3) to provide a syntactic construction mechanism that separates the implementation of a data structure from its use in the program in which it is defined, and (4) to facilitate the development of reliable software.

A constructive approach to the design of algorithms and their data structures

“…Finally consider a production rule for structures to contain B-trees of strings using HR [4] and the appropriate metaproductions to yield mt -10 -string -nil : [int, |string}J", |mt -10 -string -n\\\h°] ; nil.…”

“…Unforiunately, there has nol been a concerted effort to describe implementations using a common framework. As a result, except in a few instances (e.g.. [2,4,5]), it has been difficult to appreciate the similarities among distinct representations and algorithms and to obtain insight into the design of modified representations that suit particular processing requirements.…”

Logical Structure Specification and data type definition

“…The basis for much of the work described in tnls paper is based on the previous work of Claybrook (I), (2) and Laventhal (11).…”

Αλγοριθμικές Διαδικασίες Ως Κύρια Μαθηματική Γνώση

“…Οι δομές ομαδοποιούνται με ένα μόνο όνομα, γεγονός που προσφέρει μεγάλη ευκολία στον χειρισμό τους (Kernighan & Ritchie, 1990). Οι συλλογές αυτές βρίσκονται, συνήθως, στο κέντρο του κάθε προγράμματος και επηρεάζουν τον προγραμματιστή, ακόμη και κατά την επιλογή της γλώσσας (Ramakrishnan & Gehrke, 2003;Claybrook, 1977). Ο προγραμματισμός, γενικά, απαιτεί προσεκτική οργάνωση της πολυπλοκότητας των δεδομένων (Zhang, 2000).…”