Editing Modula-3 (section)

{{Short description|Programming language}}
{{Infobox programming language 
| name                   = Modula-3 
| logo                   = Modula-3.svg
| paradigms              = [[Imperative programming|imperative]], [[Structured programming|structured]], [[Procedural programming|procedural]], [[Modular programming|modular]], [[Concurrent computing|concurrent]], [[object-oriented programming|object-oriented]], [[generic programming|generic]]
| typing                 = [[Strong and weak typing|strong]], [[Static typing|static]], [[Type system#Safely and unsafely typed systems|safe]] or if [[Type system#Safely and unsafely typed systems|unsafe]] explicitly safe isolated
| scope                  = [[Scope (computer science)|Lexical]]
| family                 = [[Niklaus Wirth|Wirth]]/[[Modula]]
| designers              = [[Luca Cardelli]], James Donahue, Lucille Glassman, Mick Jordan; Bill Kalsow, [[Greg Nelson (computer scientist)|Greg Nelson]]
| developers             = [[Digital Equipment Corporation|DEC]]<br/>[[Olivetti]]<br/>{{Not a typo|elego}} Software Solutions GmbH
| released               = {{Start date and age|1988}}
| latest release version = 5.8.6
| latest release date    = {{Start date and age|2010|07|14}}
| latest preview version = 5.8.6
| latest preview date    = {{Start date and age|2010|07|14}}
| implementations        = [[DEC Systems Research Center|SRC]] Modula-3, CM3,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://modula3.elegosoft.com/cm3/ |title=Critical Mass Modula-3 (CM3) |website=Critical Mass Modula-3 |publisher=elego Software Solutions GmbH |access-date=2020-03-21}}</ref> PM3,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://modula3.elegosoft.com/pm3/ |title=Polytechnique Montréal Modula-3 (PM3): What is it |author=<!--Unstated--> |date=<!--Undated--> |website=Polytechnique Montréal Modula-3 |publisher=elego Software Solutions GmbH |access-date=2020-03-21}}</ref> EZM3,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cvsup.org/ezm3/ |title=Ezm3: An Easier Modula-3 Distribution |last=Polstra |first=John D. |date=November 9, 2006 |website=CVSup.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130410151327/http://www.cvsup.org/ezm3/ |archive-date=April 10, 2013 |access-date=2020-03-21}}</ref> M3/PC Klagenfurt<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ifi.uni-klu.ac.at/Modula-3/m3pc/m3pc.html |title=M3/PC Klagenfurt 96: a Modula-3 environment for MS-DOS |last=Weich |first=Carsten |date=<!-- Undated. --> |website=Department of Informatics |publisher=University of Klagenfurt |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000520073936/http://www.ifi.uni-klu.ac.at/Modula-3/m3pc/m3pc.html |archive-date=20 May 2000 |access-date=2020-03-21}}</ref>
| influenced by          = [[ALGOL]], [[Euclid (programming language)|Euclid]], [[Mesa (programming language)|Mesa]], [[Modula-2]], [[Modula-2+]], [[Oberon (programming language)|Oberon]], [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]]
| influenced             = [[C Sharp (programming language)|C#]], [[Java (programming language)|Java]], [[Nim (programming language)|Nim]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://nim-lang.org/question.html |title=Frequently Asked Questions |last1=Picheta |first1=Dominik |last2=Locurcio |first2=Hugo |date=<!-- Undated. --> |access-date=2020-03-21}}</ref> [[OCaml]], [[Rust (programming language)|Rust]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/cycjou/i_just_learned_about_modula3_a_language_that_had/|title=R/Rust - I just learned about Modula-3, a language that had a lot of similar goals to Rust, and there was even an experimental OS that relied on the safety provided by the language |date=September 2019 }}</ref> [[Python (programming language)|Python]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.python.org/doc/essays/foreword/ |title=Programming Python: Foreword (1st ed.) |last=van Rossum |first=Guido |date=May 1996 |website=Python.org |access-date=2020-03-21}}</ref>
| platform               = [[IA-32]], [[x86-64]], [[PowerPC]], [[SPARC]]
| operating system       = [[Cross-platform]]: [[FreeBSD]], [[Linux]], [[Darwin (operating system)|Darwin]], [[SunOS]]
| website                = {{URL|www.modula3.org}}
}}

'''Modula-3''' is a [[programming language]] conceived as a successor to an upgraded version of [[Modula-2]] known as [[Modula-2+]]. It has been influential in research circles (influencing the designs of languages such as [[Java (programming language)|Java]], [[C Sharp (programming language)|C#]], [[Python (programming language)|Python]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://docs.python.org/3/faq/design.html#why-self |title=Design and History FAQ: Why must 'self' be used explicitly in method definitions and calls? |date=March 21, 2020 |website=Python.org |access-date=2020-03-21}}</ref> and [[Nim (programming language)|Nim]]), but it has not been adopted widely in industry. It was designed by [[Luca Cardelli]], James Donahue, Lucille Glassman, Mick Jordan (before at the [[Olivetti]] Software Technology Laboratory), Bill Kalsow and [[Greg Nelson (computer scientist)|Greg Nelson]] at the [[Digital Equipment Corporation]] (DEC) [[DEC Systems Research Center|Systems Research Center]] (SRC) and the [[Olivetti]] Research Center (ORC) in the late 1980s.

Modula-3's main features are [[modular programming|modularity]], simplicity and safety while preserving the power of a systems-programming language. Modula-3 aimed to continue the [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]] tradition of type safety, while introducing new constructs for practical real-world programming. In particular Modula-3 added support for [[generic programming]] (similar to [[Template (programming)|templates]]), [[Thread (computer science)|multithreading]], [[exception handling]], [[Garbage collection (computer science)|garbage collection]], [[object-oriented programming]], partial revelation, and explicit marking of unsafe code. The design goal of Modula-3 was a language that implements the most important features of modern [[imperative programming]] languages in quite basic forms. Thus allegedly dangerous and complicating features such as [[multiple inheritance]] and [[operator overloading]] were omitted.