language A high-level programming language designed by
Niklaus Wirth at
ETH in 1978. It is a derivative of
Pascal with well-defined interfaces between
modules, and facilities for parallel computation. Modula-2 was developed as the system language for the
Lilith workstation.
The central concept is the
module which may be used to encapsulate a set of related subprograms and data structures, and restrict their visibility from other portions of the program. Each module has a definition part giving the interface, and an implementation part.
The language provides limited single-processor
concurrency (
monitors, coroutines and explicit transfer of control) and hardware access (
absolute addresses and
interrupts). It uses name equivalence.
DEC FTP archive (ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/.1/DEC/Modula-2/m2.tar.Z).
["Programming in Modula-2", N. Wirth, Springer 1985].
(1995-10-25)