Editing Alma-0 (section)

==Overview==
Since the designers of Alma-0 wanted to create a distinct and substantially simpler proposal than prior attempts to integrate declarative programming constructs (such as automatic backtracking) into imperative programming, the design of Alma-0 was guided by four principles:
* The logic-based extension should be ''downward'' compatible with the underlying imperative programming language
* The logic-based extension should be ''upward'' compatible with a future extension that will support [[constraint programming]]
* The constructs that will implement the extension should support and encourage declarative programming
* The extension should be kept small: nine new features have been proposed and implemented

Alma-0 can be viewed not only as a specific and concrete programming language proposal, but also as an example of a ''generic method'' for extending any imperative programming language with features that support declarative programming.

The feasibility of the Alma-0 approach has been demonstrated through a full implementation of the language (including a description of its semantics) for a subset of [[Modula-2]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dahl |first=Veronica |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zs2JYJQ3tOEC |title=Practical Aspects of Declarative Languages: 5th International Symposium, PADL 2003, New Orleans, LA, USA, January 13-14, 2003, Proceedings |date=2003-02-12 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-3-540-00389-2 |language=en |access-date=25 February 2023 |archive-date=31 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240531214535/https://books.google.com/books?id=zs2JYJQ3tOEC |url-status=live }}</ref>