Gloss of "Native Language"

Clients of the FDL must be able to stipulate programs executed by the FDL process. Request for execution of such programs and returning their results is a basic interaction between clients and the FDL. Most work of certifying inference steps is expected to be done outside the FDL by inference engines, the FDL process simply invoking those engines and recording the results. A native language should provide generic computational methods (the glue) as well as some basic FDL-specific operations for manipulating ones Current Closed Map, for managing a small External Name space, for control of access to ones own objects by other clients, and for establishing and communicating with external processes (such as inference engines).

The execution of native language programs, which are Texts, is implemented as part the FDL, and forms the basis of Certification; the facts to which a certificate attests are simply that certain native language programs were executed to certain effect.

There may be multiple native languages, suitable for different styles of programming by customers. For example, a higher-order functional style and a conventional imperative style language would be basic candidates, and perhaps a virtual machine for use by those clients who prefer to develop their own languages for execution by the FDL.

A generic native language macro facility is provided as well. These macros are expanded by simple match against a left-hand-side Text whose immediate subtexts, and perhaps some constituent Pro-textual Constituents, are then substituted into a right-hand-side. IF YOU CAN SEE THIS go to http://www.cs.cornell.edu/Info/People/sfa/Nuprl/Shared/Xindentation_hack_doc.html