ideal

adj 1: conforming to an ultimate standard of perfection or

excellence; embodying an ideal

2: represented in the abstract rather than as they really are

[syn: {idealistic}]

3: constituting or existing only in the form of an idea or

mental image or conception; "a poem or essay may be

typical of its period in idea or ideal content"

4: of or relating to the philosophical doctrine of the reality

of ideas [syn: {idealistic}]

n 1: the idea of something that is perfect; something that one

hopes to attain

2: model of excellence or perfection of a kind; one having no

equal [syn: {paragon}, {nonpareil}, {saint}, {apotheosis},

{nonesuch}, {nonsuch}]

IDEAL

1. Ideal DEductive Applicative Language. A language by Pier

Bosco and Elio Giovannetti combining {Miranda} and {Prolog}.

Function definitions can have a {guard} condition (introduced

by ":-") which is a conjunction of equalities between

arbitrary terms, including functions. These guards are solved

by normal {Prolog} {resolution} and {unification}. It was

originally compiled into {C-Prolog} but was eventually to be

compiled to {K-leaf}.

2. A numerical {constraint} language written by Van Wyk of

{Stanford} in 1980 for {typesetting} graphics in documents.

It was inspired partly by {Metafont} and is distributed as

part of {Troff}.

["A High-Level Language for Specifying Pictures", C.J. Van

Wyk, ACM Trans Graphics 1(2):163-182 (Apr 1982)].

(1994-12-15)