A very high-level programming language (VHLL) is a high-level programming language that supports operations on sets and emphasises data flow over control flow. Conventions employed by VHLLs "allow expression only of the minimum necessary functional operations on data, not the internal structure of the data."

Common features of VHLLs include associative referencing, aggregate operators, elimination of arbitrary sequencing, nondeterministic programming and parallelism, as well as pattern directed structures (for example, Markov algorithm, patterns in SNOBOL and pattern matching).

VHLLs are usually domain-specific languages, limited to a very specific application, purpose, or type of task, and they are often scripting languages (especially extension languages), controlling a specific environment. For this reason, very high-level programming languages are often referred to as goal-oriented programming languages.

Early notable VHLLs include APL, SETL and BDL.

Such "very high-level" languages have now become fairly standard. The approach is considered to be an ancestor of object-oriented programming. Modern high-level programming languages used for scripting, such as Perl, Python, PHP, Ruby, and Visual Basic can be classed as VHLLs.

See also

• Automatic programming

• Low-level programming language

• Feature-oriented programming

References

Further reading

• Symposium on Very High Level Languages. SIG- PLAN Notices (ACM) 9, 4 (April 1974), 1–132.

• Teichroew, D. A survey of languages for stating requirements for computer-based information systems. Proc. AFIPS 1972 FJCC, AFIPS Press, Montvale, N.J., pp.1203-1224.

• Libre Software Meeting 2004

• Libre Software Meeting: Proceedings of the VHLL track (2004).

• Libre Software Meeting (2003) VHLL Track announcement