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{{Short description|Concurrent programming language}}
{{Infobox programming language
| name = Alef
| logo =
| caption =
| file_ext =
| paradigm = [[Compiled language|compiled]], [[Concurrent programming|concurrent]], [[structured programming|structured]]
| year = {{Start date and age|1992}}
| designer = [[Phil Winterbottom]]
| developer =
| latest_release_version =
| latest_release_date =
| latest_test_version =
| latest_test_date =
| typing = [[Static typing|Static]], [[Strongly-typed programming language|strong]]
| implementations =
| dialects =
| influenced_by = [[C (programming language)|C]], [[Newsqueak]]
| influenced = [[Limbo (programming language)|Limbo]], [[Rust (programming language)|Rust]], [[Go (programming language)|Go]]
| operating_system = [[Plan 9 from Bell Labs]]
| license =
| website =
| wikibooks =
}}
'''Alef''' is a discontinued [[concurrent programming language]], designed as part of the [[Plan 9 from Bell Labs|Plan 9]] [[operating system]] by [[Phil Winterbottom]] of [[Bell Labs]]. It implemented the channel-based [[Concurrency (computer science)|concurrency]] model of [[Newsqueak]] in a [[compiler|compiled]], [[C (programming language)|C]]-like language.

==History==
Alef appeared in the first and second editions of Plan 9, but was abandoned during development of the third edition.<ref name="alefref"/><ref name="3e-preface"/> [[Rob Pike]] later explained Alef's demise by pointing to its lack of [[automatic memory management]], despite Pike's and other people's urging Winterbottom to add [[garbage collection (computer science)|garbage collection]] to the language;<ref>{{cite conference |first=Rob |last=Pike |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DtUzH3zoFo |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/3DtUzH3zoFo |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live|title=Origins of Go concurrency style |conference=OSCON Emerging Languages Camp |year=2010}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
also, in a February 2000 slideshow, Pike noted: "…although Alef was a fruitful language, it proved too difficult to maintain a variant language across multiple architectures, so we took what we learned from it and built the thread library for C."<ref>{{cite web|last=Pike|first=Rob|title=Rio: Design of a Concurrent Window System|url=http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/3rd_edition/rio/rio_slides.pdf|access-date=8 March 2013}}</ref>

Alef was superseded by two programming environments. The [[Limbo (programming language)|Limbo programming language]] can be considered a direct successor of Alef and is the most commonly used language in the [[Inferno (operating system)|Inferno]] operating system. The Alef concurrency model was replicated in the third edition of Plan 9 in the form of the ''libthread'' [[Library (computing)|library]], which makes some of Alef's functionality available to [[C (programming language)|C]] programs and allowed existing Alef programs (such as [[Acme (text editor)|Acme]]) to be translated.<ref name="libthread" />

==Example==
This example was taken from the Alef reference manual.<ref name="alefref" /> The piece illustrates the use of the [[tuple]] data type.

<syntaxhighlight lang="C">
(int, byte*, byte)
func()
{
return (10, "hello", 'c');
}

void
main()
{
int a;
byte* str;
byte c;
(a, str, c) = func();
}
</syntaxhighlight>

==See also==
* [[Communicating sequential processes]]
* [[Plan 9 from Bell Labs]]
* [[Go (programming language)]]

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="3e-preface">{{cite book
| title = Plan 9 Manual
| section = Preface to the Third (2000) Edition
| section-url = http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/man/preface3.html
| publisher = Bell Labs
| location = Murray Hill
| date = June 2000
| access-date = 2012-10-29
| archive-date = 2015-02-05
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150205030100/http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/man/preface3.html
| url-status = dead
}}</ref>
<ref name="alefref">
{{cite book
| first = Phil
| last = Winterbottom
| chapter = Alef Language Reference Manual
| title = Plan 9 Programmer's Manual: Volume Two
| publisher = AT&T
| location = Murray Hill
| year = 1995
| chapter-url = http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/2nd_edition/papers/alef/ref
}}
</ref>
<ref name="libthread">
{{cite book
| title = Plan 9 Manual
| section = thread(2)
| section-url = http://plan9.bell-labs.com/magic/man2html/2/thread
| access-date = 2012-10-29
}}
</ref>
}}

* {{cite book
| first = Bob
| last = Flandrena
| chapter = Alef Users' Guide
| title = Plan 9 Programmer's Manual: Volume Two
| publisher = Bell Labs
| location = Murray Hill
| year = 1995
| chapter-url = http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/2nd_edition/papers/alef/ug
}}
* {{cite newsgroup
| author = Phil Winterbottom
| author-link = Phil Winterbottom
| title = Plan9 VM
| date = 1992-10-20
| newsgroup = comp.os.research
|message-id= 1c1denINN441@darkstar.UCSC.EDU
| url = https://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.research/msg/a7dce2f02eb44ffd?&hl=en
}}

{{Programming language}}

[[Category:C programming language family]]
[[Category:Concurrent programming languages]]
[[Category:Plan 9 from Bell Labs]]
[[Category:Programming languages created in 1992]]

{{prog-lang-stub}}

Alef (programming language) - Revision history

78.146.52.238: fix grammar