Designed by the DEC Systems Research Center and the Olivetti Research Center, the programming language Modula-3 descends from Mesa, Modula-2, Cedar, and Module-2+, and resembles Object Pascal, Oberon, and Euclid. A notable feature of this language family is the use of modules to delineate the separation between the implementation and the use of interfaces; modules allow separate compilation without sacrificing the strong typechecking of languages like Pascal. Modula-3 supports object-oriented programming, garbage collection, exception handling, lightweight processes, and the isolation of unsafe features. It incorporates a new type system that is simpler, more uniform, and more powerful than those of its ancestors. An index and 13 references are included. (Author/EW)