Introduction
The beginningStudent dialect is intended to avoid some challenges that beginning students have encountered with Grace. It makes several changes to the standard dialect. Other than what is listed below, all of the features of the standard dialect are available in beginningStudent.
Collections
The collection constructors of standard, written with [ square brackets ],
are not present in beginningStudent. Instead, use the following methods:
list.empty // creates an empty list
list(arg1) // creates a list containing the single element arg1
list(arg1, arg2) // creates a list containing the two elements arg1 and arg2
list(arg1, ...) // as above, but with an arbitrary number of arguments
sequence.empty // creates an empty sequence
sequence(arg1) // creates a sequence containing the single element arg1
sequence(arg1, arg2) // creates a sequence containing the two elements arg1 and arg2
sequence(arg1, ...) // as above, but with an arbitrary number of arguments
set.empty // creates an empty set
set(arg1) // creates a set containing the single element arg1
set(arg1, arg2) // creates a set containing the two elements arg1 and arg2
set(arg1, ...) // as above, but with an arbitrary number of arguments
dictionary.empty // creates an empty dictionary
dictionary(k1::v1) // creates a dictionary containing the single key k1, with value v1
dictionary(k1::v1, k2::v2) // creates a dictionary containing the two keys k1 and k2,
// with values v1 and v2, respectively.
dictionary(k1::v1, ...) // as above, but with an arbitrary number of arguments
Once they have been constructed, these collections are identical to those of the standard dialect.
Type are Required
This dialect requires that the programmer specify the types of all method parameters and return values, block parameters, and variables in var declarations.
Case Conventions Enforced
This dialect requires that methods and variable names start with a lower-case letter, and types with an upper-case letter.
Purpose Statements are Required
This dialect requires that methods have purpose statements, and that these purpose statements specify the role of the parameters to the method, as well as its return value, if it has one.
Minispec
The beginningStudent dialect incorporates the minispec dialect.