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Language

Overview

Sedona is a programming language based upon the following principles:

• Familiar Syntax: Reuses C, Java, and C# syntax where possible.
• Object Oriented: Includes the three pillars of OO: encapsulated classes, inheritance, and polymorphism.
• Component Oriented: Based on a development paradigm of reusable software components. Applications are assembled by wiring together pre-built components.
• Static Typing: Uses a static type system much like Java and C# with explicit typing of fields, methods, and local variables. This allows the compiler to perform type checking.
• Static Memory: Manages memory statically at compile time, making it ideal for embedded platforms with limited resources.

Namespaces

Sedona Framework code is organized into a three unit hierarchy:

1. Kit: A module of deployment and versioning. Kits form the top of the namespace and must be globally unique. Kit names are required to be prefixed with the vendor's name.
2. Class: An object oriented unit of organization. Classes are always scoped within a kit.
3. Slot: Special fields and methods defined within a class are called slots. Slots are the externally visible "wiring points" on a component that can be linked to other components in a Sedona application.

Kits are globally unique and used to scope classes which in turn scope slots. We use this structure to define globally unique qualified names or qnames for classes and slots. A Class qname consists of the kit name and class name joined by the "::" separator. A slot qname is the class's qname joined to the slot's simple name by the "." separator:

control::Ramp      // class qname
control::Ramp.out  // slot qname

Structure

Sedona Framework software is packaged up into modules called kits. The source code for a kit is managed as a set of text files with the ".sedona" extension. A "kit.xml" file instructs the compiler how to compile the kit and what directories contain the source code. A typical source directory is structured as follows:

  myCoolKit/                    // directory for myCoolKit
    +- kit.xml                  // kit build manifest
    +- CoolComp.sedona          // source file
    +- AnotherCoolComp.sedona   // source file
    +- test/
        +- CoolCompTest.sedona  // source file for tests

You can then compile the kit using either the directory or "kit.xml" file. Assuming your current directory is the parent of "myCoolKit" you could use either of the following commands to compile:

    sedonac myCoolKit
    sedonac myCoolKit/kit.xml

Each source file is called a compilation unit. Source text files must use UTF-8 encoding (7-bit ASCII is a clean subset of UTF-8). Each compilation unit can contain one or more classes. Sedona does not require any correlation between your source file names and class names. However, by convention each class is sourced in a file with the same name. For example CoolComp is stored in a text file called "CoolComp.sedona".

Classes

A kit contains one or more classes. A class is very similar to a Java or C# class. However, Sedona doesn't have the concept of interfaces - so everything is strictly based on single inheritance.

A class is composed of zero or more named slots. There are two kinds of slots:

• Field: a memory location for storing a variable to manage state;
• Method: an executable function to manage behavior;

All slots must be uniquely named. Sedona doesn't support method overloading by parameter types as you might find in Java or C#.

Protection Scope

The following keywords are used to annotate the protection scope of classes and slots:

• public: visible to everyone; this is the default scope if no keyword is specified [applies to classes and slots]
• internal: visible to classes in the same kit only [applies to classes and slots]
• protected: visible to subclasses only [applies to slots only]
• private: visible to declaring class only [applies to slots only]

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Last update: April 28, 2020