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lianamore about liana

liana

 

  3  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Liane  \Li*ane"\  (l[-i]*[=a]n"),  Liana  \Li*a"na\ 
  (l[-i]*[=a]"n[.a]),  n.  [F.  liane;  prob.  akin  to  lien  a  band, 
  fr  L.  ligamen,  fr  ligare  to  bind.  Cf  {Lien},  n.  ]  (Bot.) 
  A  luxuriant  woody  plant,  climbing  high  trees  and  having 
  ropelike  stems.  The  grapevine  often  has  the  habit  of  a  liane. 
  Lianes  are  abundant  in  the  forests  of  the  Amazon  region. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  liana 
  n  :  a  woody  climbing  usually  tropical  plant 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  Liana 
 
    A  {C}-like,  interpretive,  {object-oriented 
  programming}  language,  {class}  library,  and  integrated 
  development  environment  designed  specifically  for  development 
  of  {application  programs}  for  {Microsoft  Windows}  and  {Windows 
  NT}.  Designed  by  Jack  Krupansky    of 
  {Base  Technology},  Liana  was  first  released  as  a  commercial 
  product  in  August  1991.  The  language  is  designed  to  be  as 
  easy  to  use  as  {BASIC},  as  concise  as  {C},  and  as  flexible  as 
  {Smalltalk}. 
 
  The  {OOP}  {syntax}  of  {C++}  was  chosen  over  the  less  familiar 
  syntax  of  {Smalltalk}  and  {Objective-C}  to  appeal  to  {C} 
  programmers  and  in  recognition  of  C++  being  the  leading  OOP 
  language.  The  syntax  is  a  simplified  subset  of  {C/C++}.  The 
  {semantics}  are  also  a  simplified  subset  of  C/C++,  but 
  extended  to  achieve  the  flexibility  of  Smalltalk. 
 
  Liana  is  a  typeless  language  (like  {Lisp},  {Snobol}  and 
  {Smalltalk}),  which  means  that  the  datatypes  of  variables, 
  function  parameters,  and  function  return  values  are  not  needed 
  since  values  carry  the  type  information.  Hence  variables  are 
  simply  containers  for  values  and  function  parameters  are 
  simply  pipes  through  which  any  type  of  value  can  flow. 
  {Single  inheritance},  but  not  {multiple  inheritance},  is 
  supported.  {Memory  management}  is  automatic  using  {reference 
  counting}. 
 
  The  library  includes  over  150  {classes},  for  {dynamic  arrays}, 
  {associative  lookup}  tables,  windows,  menus,  dialogs, 
  controls,  bitmaps,  cursors,  icons,  mouse  movement,  keyboard 
  input,  fonts,  text  and  graphics  display,  {DDE},  and  {MDI}. 
 
  Liana  provides  flexible  OOP  support  for  Windows  programming. 
  For  example,  a  {list  box}  automatically  fills  itself  from  an 
  associated  {object}.  That  object  is  not  some  sort  of  special 
  object,  but  is  merely  any  object  that  "behaves  like"  an  array 
  (i.e.,  has  a  size"  member  function  that  returns  the  number  of 
  elements,  a  get"  function  that  returns  the  ith  element,  and 
  the  text  for  each  element  is  returned  by  calling  the  text" 
  member  function  for  the  element). 
 
  A  related  product,  C-odeScript,  is  an  embeddable  application 
  scripting  language.  It  is  an  implementation  of  Liana  which 
  can  be  called  from  C/C++  applications  to  dynamically  evaluate 
  expressions  and  statement  sequences.  This  can  be  used  to 
  offer  the  end-user  a  macro/scripting  capability  or  to  allow 
  the  C/C++  application  to  be  customized  without  changing  the 
  C/C++  source  code. 
 
  Here's  a  complete  Liana  program  which  illustrates  the 
  flexibility  of  the  language  semantics  and  the  power  of  the 
  class  library: 
 
  main 
  { 
  //  Prompt  user  for  a  string. 
  //  No  declaration  needed  for  x"  (becomes  a  global  variable.) 
  x  =  ask  ("Enter  a  String"); 
 
  //  Use  "+"  operator  to  concatenate  strings.  Memory 
  //  management  for  string  temporaries  is  automatic.  The 
  //  message"  function  displays  a  Windows  message  box. 
  message  ("You  entered:  "  +  x); 
 
  //  Now  x  will  take  on  a  different  type  The  "ask_number" 
  //  function  will  return  a  real"  if  the  user's  input 
  //  contains  a  decimal  point  or  an  int"  if  no  decimal 
  //  point. 
  x  =  ask_number  ("Enter  a  Number"); 
 
  //  The  "+"  operator  with  a  string  operand  will 
  //  automatically  convert  the  other  operand  to  a  string. 
 
  message  ("You  entered:  "  +  x); 
 
  //  Prompt  user  for  a  Liana  expression.  Store  it  in  a 
  //  local  variable  (the  type  string,  is  merely  for 
  //  documentation.) 
  string  expr  =  ask  ("Enter  an  Expression"); 
 
  //  Evaluate  the  expression.  The  return  value  of  eval" 
  //  could  be  any  type  The  "source_format"  member  function 
  //  converts  any  value  to  its  source  format  (e.g.,  add 
  //  quotes  for  a  string.)  The  "class_name"  member  function 
  //  return  the  name  of  the  class  of  an  object/value. 
  //  Empty  parens  can  be  left  off  for  member  function  calls. 
  x  =  eval  (expr); 
  message  ("The  value  of  "  +  expr  +  "  is  "  +  x.source_format  + 
  "  its  type  is  "  +  x.class_name); 
  } 
 
  The  author  explained  that  the  Li"  of  Liana  stands  for 
  "Language  interpreter"  and  liana  are  vines  that  grow  up  trees 
  in  tropical  forests,  which  seemed  quite  appropriate  for  a  tool 
  to  deal  with  the  complexity  of  MS  Windows!  It  is  also  a 
  woman's  name 
 
  ["Liana  for  Windows",  Aitken,  P.,  PC  TECHNIQUES,  Dec/Jan 
  1993]. 
 
  ["Liana:  A  Language  For  Writing  Windows  Programs",  Burk,  R., 
  Tech  Specialist  (R&D  Publications),  Sep  1991]. 
 
  ["Liana  v.  1.0."  Hildebrand,  J.D.,  Computer  Language,  Dec 
  1992]. 
 
  ["Liana:  A  Windows  Programming  Language  Based  on  C  and  C++", 
  Krupansky  J.,  The  C  Users  Journal,  Jul  1992]. 
 
  ["Writing  a  Multimedia  App  in  Liana",  Krupansky  J., 
  Dr  Dobb's  Journal,  Winter  Multimedia  Sourcebook  1994]. 
 
  ["The  Liana  Programming  Language",  R.  Valdes,  Dr  Dobbs  J  Oct 
  1993,  pp.50-52]. 
 
  (1999-06-29)




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