Translucent Procedures, Abstraction without Opacity

摘要

This report introduces TRANSLUCENT PROCEDURES as a new mechanism for implementingbehavioral abstractions. Like an ordinary procedure, a translucent procedure can be invoked, and thus provides an obvious way to capture a BEHAVIOR. Translucent procedures, like ordinary procedures, can be manipulated as first-class objects and combined using functional composition. But unlike ordinary procedures, translucent procedures have structure that can be examined in well-specified non-destructive ways, without invoking the procedure. Reflection, Matching, Equation, Reification Higher-order.