# Dao language 1.0 beta is release!

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dao-language-1-0-beta-is-release/76679>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [November 20, 2006, 2:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dao-language-1-0-beta-is-release/76679 "2006-11-20T14:47:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![fulimin](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@fulimin](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/fulimin)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 2:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dao-language-1-0-beta-is-release/76679/1 "2006-11-20T14:47:19Z")

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Hello,

After a few months’ effort, I have finished the implementation of Dao  
Virtual Machine(DVM), and released it as 1.0-beta. The DVM is  
implemented as a very efficient virtual register machine. This version  
has implemented all the features I have planned. Most importantly, the  
implementation has been switched from C++ to standard C. As a  
consequence, the binary code of DVM is much smaller than before (as  
executable 250KB, as dynamic linking library 300KB, linux/gcc4). The  
efficiency has also been improved as well. The structure of DVM has  
been changed slightly, such that the embedding and extending of DVM  
becomes more convinient. In fact, now the mechanism to call internal  
functions is exactly the same as the mechanism to call extended  
functions. To allow DVM being more freely used, GLPL (GNU Lesser  
General Public Licence) has been adopted since this release. The DVM  
can be compiled and run in both windows and linux, but so far, it is  
tested mainly under linux. As before, the documentation of Dao is not  
well prepared yet; and there are only a few extended modules available  
for using. These two things will be the prioritized work in the near  
future.

links:  
website: [http://www.xdao.org](http://www.xdao.org)  
documentations: [http://www.xdao.org/daoweb.dao?page=document](http://www.xdao.org/daoweb.dao?page=document)

# ========================= Changed or new features

* * *

Multiple lines comment: \<\<\<…\>\>\> is changed to #{…#}, which can be  
used anywhere in the scripts.

* * *

Built-in functions have been organized into some basic libraries:  
stdlib, stdio, math, reflect, coroutine, thread etc. So now Built-in  
function xyz(…) should be used abc.xyz(…), where “abc” is the  
proper library. For convinience and efficiency, one may also do:  
xyz = abc.xyz;  
xyz(…);

* * *

More methods are added for basic data types;

* * *

Bit operations |, &, ^, ~, \<\<, \>\>;

* * *

Typed variables, assignment between variable of different types will  
issure an error:

a : 1; # a is a number; not compiled virtual instruction;  
a := 1; # a is a number; compiled into assignment instruction;

The right side of : or := must be a const. This kind of syntax is for  
consistence with syntax for specifying typed parameters in function  
definition;

* * *

Similarly class may have typed instance variables. Moreover, “my a :=  
1” will also specify the default value for the variable;

* * *

Class instance creation by enumeration:  
class MyNumber  
my value := 0;  
end

num1 = MyNumber{ 123 };

num2 = MyNumber {  
value @= 456; # may specify the name of variables to be  
initialized.  
};

Be cautious when enumerating class members without speficying names  
to create class instances for derived classes.

* * *

Creating multi-dimensional array:

changed from  
list = { 2, 3 } : 100;  
array = [2, 3] : 100; # 2 X 3 matrix  
to  
list = 100 \<@\> { 2, 3 };  
array = 100 \<@\> [2, 3];

operator \<@\> can be called arrange operator. A\<@\>B, arrange A or copies  
of A into a list or array of shape B. If B is a list, this operator  
will create a new list which has shape specified by B, and contains A  
or copies of A as elements. If B is a numeric array, this operator will  
create a numeric array with shape B; if A is also a numberic array, the  
resulting array will contain multiple subarrays that are equal to A.

This new operator is introduce because the previous using colon for  
multiple purpose is confusing.

* * *

Support coroutines similar to Lua coroutines;

* * *

Previous built-in functions sort(),apply(),noapply() have become  
methods of list  
or numeric array with some changing in syntax:

before:  
sort( list, @0 \< @1, n );  
now:  
list.sort( @{ @0 \< @1 }, n );  
before£º  
apply( array[1:5, :], @0 + @1 \* @2 );  
now:  
array.apply( @{ @0 + @1 \* @2 }, { 1:5, : } );

Expressions that are used as parameters should be put inside @{ }. The  
advantage for this is,  
simpler parsing; and moreover, they can be passed to C extending  
functions.

# =================== Extending modules:

New modules available:

- DaoCGI: CGI web programming;
- DaoFastCGI: FastCGI web programming;allow DVM to run as FastCGI  
server;
- DaoSqlite: binding to Sqlite3 database; lighttpd +sqlite +dao could  
be a good option  
for some websites, since each of them is designed to be  
light and efficient.
- DaoOpenGL: 3D graphics; support upto DaoOpenGL1.1£¬including GLU;
- DaoSDL: binding to Single DirectMedia Layer, partially finished;
- DaoCamellia: binding to camellia image processing library;

The previous modules DaoMySQL, DaoBLAS and DaoPython are not yet  
upgraded accordingly for this release.

Have fun!

Limin Fu  
phoolimin[AT]gmail[DOT]com

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fulimin](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@fulimin](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/fulimin)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 4:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dao-language-1-0-beta-is-release/76679/2 "2006-11-20T16:32:44Z")

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ÄúºÃ£¬

- fulimin, 11/20/2006 11:45 AM:

> To allow DVM being more freely used, GLPL (GNU Lesser  
> General Public Licence) has been adopted since this release.

The correct abbreviation for GNU Lesser General Public License is  
LGPL, not GLPL, see [GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation](http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.html)

ÔÙ¼û(\*),

Jupp

(\*) Does one use this in E-Mails?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fulimin](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@fulimin](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/fulimin)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 5:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dao-language-1-0-beta-is-release/76679/3 "2006-11-20T17:31:08Z")

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Hi, Jupp,

Glad to see you in the list again 😉

"Josef ‘Jupp’ Schugt дµÀ£º  
"

> ÄúºÃ£¬

Yes, people used it in email.

> - fulimin, 11/20/2006 11:45 AM:
> 
> > To allow DVM being more freely used, GLPL (GNU Lesser  
> > General Public Licence) has been adopted since this release.
> 
> The correct abbreviation for GNU Lesser General Public License is  
> LGPL, not GLPL, see [GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation](http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.html)

It was a typo 😉

> ÔÙ¼û(\*),

It is also used, but not very frequently.

> Jupp
> 
> (\*) Does one use this in E-Mails?

Limin