Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- language:migrate [2026/08/09 13:13] – [From CAST] rajit
+++ language:migrate [2026/08/09 13:23] (current) – [From CAST] rajit
@@ Line 85: / Line 85: @@
 ===== From CAST =====
-The history
+The [[history:start|history]] of ACT can be traced back to CAST developed at Caltech in the mid 1990s. There are quite a few changes between CAST and ACT, and so migration is not as straightforward depending on the CAST features that you have used. Here are some salient points:
+   * CAST uses parentheses for template parameters; ACT uses angle brackets.
+   * CAST template parameters are declared in a way similar to the standard port list; ACT uses a C++-style ''template'' keyword.
+   * Electrical signals and Booleans in CAST are declared as a ''node''; ACT uses ''bool''.
+   * Processes, channels, and data types were all specified with a ''define'' in CAST; ACT uses ''defproc'', ''defchan'', ''deftype'' for them respectively (among other keywords).
+   * Array  declarations were handled differently in CAST. Here are some examples:
+         * ''int[10] x;'' would declare ''x'' as an array of integers in CAST; the equivalent in ACT is ''int x[10];'' (C/C++ style)
+         * ''int x[11];'' would declare ''x[11]'' to be an integer in CAST; the equivalent in ACT is ''int x[11..11];''
+    * In CAST array connections could be made between two arrays of any shape as long as their number of elements matched; ACT requires shape matching as well.
+   * CAST permitted nested definitions; ACT disallows these.
+   * Syntactic replication in CAST used angle brackets; ACT uses parentheses.