science

Napier88

Napier88 is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Napier88 rather than just read about it. In short: Napier88 is an orthogonally persistent programming language that was designed and implemented at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. The primary designer was Ron Morrison, whose initial designs were extended and implemented by Fred Brown, Richard Connor, and Al Dearle.

Key takeaways

Napier88 belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Napier88 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Napier88 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Napier88 is an orthogonally persistent programming language that was designed and implemented at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. The primary designer was Ron Morrison, whose initial designs were extended and implemented by Fred Brown, Richard Connor, and Al Dearle. Napier88 was ahead of its time in many ways, and was the first robustly implemented language to combine a polymorphic type system with orthogonal persistence. The language was robustly implemented and released to users from both industry and academia; up to 1,000 registered users were recorded in due course. The language, however, was only intended to provide a proof of concept for an experiment in persistent programming; some time after 1989 (the year the first implementation was in fact released) the group's interests moved on and the language was no longer maintained. Its influence lives on in various other systems however; the CORBA type ANY is distinctly recognisable in Napier88's type ANY; Microsoft's Common Language Runtime (CLR) uses a similar polymorphic architecture, and Java's parametric types solve some of the same problems of uninstantiated types escaping from their static scope.

History Napier88 was the third of a family of languages designed and implemented by Morrison at St Andrews, following on from S-algol and PS-algol.

Further reading Morrison, R; Connor, RCH; Kirby, GNC; Munro, DS; Atkinson, MP; Cutts, QI; Brown, AL; Dearle, A. (1999), "The Napier88 Persistent Programming Language and Environment" (pdf), in Atkinson, MP; Welland, R (eds.), Fully Integrated Data Environments, Esprit Basic Research Series, Springer, pp. 98–154, ISBN 3-540-65772-X Dearle, A (1988). On the Construction of Persistent Programming Environments (PDF) (PhD). Computational Science Department, University of St. Andrews. Dearle, A.; Connor, R.C.H.; Brown, A.L.; Morrison, R (1989), "Napier88 - A Database Programming Language?" (pdf), Proc. 2nd International Workshop on Database Programming Languages, Salishan, Oregon, pp. 179–195{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Morrison, R; Brown, AL; Connor, RCH; Cutts, QI; Dearle, A; Kirby, GNC; Munro, DS (1996), Napier88 Reference Manual (Release 2.2.1) (PDF) (technical report), University of St Andrews Kirby, GNC; Brown, AL; Connor, RCH; Cutts, QI; Dearle, A; Dunstan, VS; Morrison, R; Munro, DS (1996), Napier88 Standard Library Reference Manual (Release 2.2.1) (PDF) (report), University of St Andrews Bushell, SJ; Dearle, A; Brown, AL; Vaughan, FA (1994), "Using C as a Compiler Target Language for Native Code Generation in Persistent Systems" (pdf), in Atkinson, MP; Maier, D; Benzaken, V (eds.), Proc. 6th International Workshop on Persistent Object Systems (POS6), Tarascon, France, Springer-Verlag, pp. 164–183

External links Description of Napier88 at Univ. of St Andrew's website. Accessed June 21, 2012

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Napier88

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Napier88 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Napier88 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Napier88 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Napier88

In research: Napier88 appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Napier88 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Napier88 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Algol programming language family, Persistent programming languages, Programming language topic stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Napier88 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Napier88 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Napier88 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Napier88 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Napier88 in simple terms?

Why does Napier88 matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Napier88?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Napier88.