A Brief Introduction ======================== The program **atlas** provides access to its functions in an `expression-oriented`_ fashion. The **atlas** program consists of an implementation for a general programming language called :doc:`'axis' ` (which we developed and is currently only used within the Atlas Project), to whose general functionality are added a great number of value types specific for **atlas**, and functions from its library operating upon them. In this documentation, we try to refer to 'axis' for basic features proper to the programming language, and 'atlas' for anything specific for the **atlas** specific functionality, but the distinction may be ignored without harm. .. _expression-oriented: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expression-oriented_programming_language