Little b (programming language)
Encyclopedia
Little b is a domain-specific programming language
, more specifically, a modeling language
, designed to build modular mathematical
models of biological systems
. It was designed and authored by Aneil Mallavarapu. Little b is being developed in the Virtual Cell Program at Harvard Medical School
, headed by mathematician Jeremy Gunawardena.
This language is based on Lisp and is meant to allow modular programming to model biological systems. It will allow more flexibility to facilitate rapid change that is required to accurately capture complex biological systems.
The language draws on techniques from artificial intelligence and symbolic mathematics, and provides syntactic conveniences derived from object-oriented
languages. The language was originally denoted with a lowercase b (distinguishing it from B, the predecessor to the widely used C
programming language, but the name was eventually changed to "little b" to avoid confusion and to pay homage to Smalltalk
, the first object-oriented programming
language.
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
, more specifically, a modeling language
Modeling language
A modeling language is any artificial language that can be used to express information or knowledge or systems in a structure that is defined by a consistent set of rules...
, designed to build modular mathematical
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
models of biological systems
Systems biology
Systems biology is a term used to describe a number of trends in bioscience research, and a movement which draws on those trends. Proponents describe systems biology as a biology-based inter-disciplinary study field that focuses on complex interactions in biological systems, claiming that it uses...
. It was designed and authored by Aneil Mallavarapu. Little b is being developed in the Virtual Cell Program at Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
, headed by mathematician Jeremy Gunawardena.
This language is based on Lisp and is meant to allow modular programming to model biological systems. It will allow more flexibility to facilitate rapid change that is required to accurately capture complex biological systems.
The language draws on techniques from artificial intelligence and symbolic mathematics, and provides syntactic conveniences derived from object-oriented
Object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm using "objects" – data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs. Programming techniques may include features such as data abstraction,...
languages. The language was originally denoted with a lowercase b (distinguishing it from B, the predecessor to the widely used C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
programming language, but the name was eventually changed to "little b" to avoid confusion and to pay homage to Smalltalk
Smalltalk
Smalltalk is an object-oriented, dynamically typed, reflective programming language. Smalltalk was created as the language to underpin the "new world" of computing exemplified by "human–computer symbiosis." It was designed and created in part for educational use, more so for constructionist...
, the first object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm using "objects" – data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs. Programming techniques may include features such as data abstraction,...
language.
External links
- www.littleb.org
- Biology enters 'The Matrix' through new computer language EurekAlert article