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diff --git a/system/doc/reference_manual/introduction.xml b/system/doc/reference_manual/introduction.xml new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..3dac5cfe13 --- /dev/null +++ b/system/doc/reference_manual/introduction.xml @@ -0,0 +1,155 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="latin1" ?> +<!DOCTYPE chapter SYSTEM "chapter.dtd"> + +<chapter> + <header> + <copyright> + <year>2003</year><year>2009</year> + <holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder> + </copyright> + <legalnotice> + The contents of this file are subject to the Erlang Public License, + Version 1.1, (the "License"); you may not use this file except in + compliance with the License. You should have received a copy of the + Erlang Public License along with this software. If not, it can be + retrieved online at http://www.erlang.org/. + + Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" + basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See + the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations + under the License. + + </legalnotice> + + <title>Introduction</title> + <prepared></prepared> + <docno></docno> + <date></date> + <rev></rev> + <file>introduction.xml</file> + </header> + + <section> + <title>Purpose</title> + <p>This reference manual describes the Erlang programming + language. The focus is on the language itself, not + the implementation. The language constructs are described in + text and with examples rather than formally specified, with + the intention to make the manual more readable. + The manual is not intended as a tutorial.</p> + <p>Information about this implementation of Erlang can be found, for + example, in <em>System Principles</em> (starting and stopping, + boot scripts, code loading, error logging, creating target + systems), <em>Efficiency Guide</em> (memory consumption, system + limits) and <em>ERTS User's Guide</em> (crash dumps, drivers).</p> + </section> + + <section> + <title>Prerequisites</title> + <p>It is assumed that the reader has done some programming and + is familiar with concepts such as data types and programming + language syntax.</p> + </section> + + <section> + <title>Document Conventions</title> + <p>In the document, the following terminology is used:</p> + <list type="bulleted"> + <item>A <em>sequence</em> is one or more items. For example, a + clause body consists of a sequence of expressions. This + means that there must be at least one expression.</item> + <item>A <em>list</em> is any number of items. For example, + an argument list can consist of zero, one or more arguments.</item> + </list> + <p>If a feature has been added recently, in Erlang 5.0/OTP R7 or + later, this is mentioned in the text.</p> + </section> + + <section> + <title>Complete List of BIFs</title> + <p>For a complete list of BIFs, their arguments and return values, + refer to <c>erlang(3)</c>.</p> + </section> + + <section> + <title>Reserved Words</title> + <p>The following are reserved words in Erlang:</p> + <p>after and andalso band begin bnot bor bsl bsr bxor case catch + cond div end fun if let not of or orelse query receive rem try + when xor</p> + </section> + + <section> + <title>Character Set</title> + <p>In Erlang 4.8/OTP R5A the syntax of Erlang tokens was extended to + allow the use of the full ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1) character set. This + is noticeable in the following ways:</p> + <list type="bulleted"> + <item> + <p>All the Latin-1 printable characters can be used and are + shown without the escape backslash convention.</p> + </item> + <item> + <p>Atoms and variables can use all Latin-1 letters.</p> + </item> + </list> + <table> + <row> + <cell align="left" valign="middle"><em>Octal</em></cell> + <cell align="left" valign="middle"><em>Decimal</em></cell> + <cell align="left" valign="middle"> </cell> + <cell align="left" valign="middle"><em>Class</em></cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell align="left" valign="middle">200 - 237</cell> + <cell align="left" valign="middle">128 - 159</cell> + <cell align="left" valign="middle"> </cell> + <cell align="left" valign="middle">Control characters</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell align="left" valign="middle">240 - 277</cell> + <cell align="left" valign="middle">160 - 191</cell> + <cell align="right" valign="middle">- ¿</cell> + <cell align="left" valign="middle">Punctuation characters</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell align="left" valign="middle">300 - 326</cell> + <cell align="left" valign="middle">192 - 214</cell> + <cell align="center" valign="middle">À - Ö</cell> + <cell align="left" valign="middle">Uppercase letters</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell align="center" valign="middle">327</cell> + <cell align="center" valign="middle">215</cell> + <cell align="center" valign="middle">×</cell> + <cell align="left" valign="middle">Punctuation character</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell align="left" valign="middle">330 - 336</cell> + <cell align="left" valign="middle">216 - 222</cell> + <cell align="center" valign="middle">Ø - Þ</cell> + <cell align="left" valign="middle">Uppercase letters</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell align="left" valign="middle">337 - 366</cell> + <cell align="left" valign="middle">223 - 246</cell> + <cell align="center" valign="middle">ß - ö</cell> + <cell align="left" valign="middle">Lowercase letters</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell align="center" valign="middle">367</cell> + <cell align="center" valign="middle">247</cell> + <cell align="center" valign="middle">÷</cell> + <cell align="left" valign="middle">Punctuation character</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell align="left" valign="middle">370 - 377</cell> + <cell align="left" valign="middle">248 - 255</cell> + <cell align="center" valign="middle">ø - ÿ</cell> + <cell align="left" valign="middle">Lowercase letters</cell> + </row> + <tcaption>Character Classes.</tcaption> + </table> + </section> +</chapter> + |