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| -rw-r--r-- | README.adoc | 32 |
1 files changed, 28 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/README.adoc b/README.adoc index c519cce..b68b948 100644 --- a/README.adoc +++ b/README.adoc @@ -10,7 +10,9 @@ reasonably comfortable to use. This package is an implementation of said language, meant to be self-contained, portable and reusable. Performance is specifically not an intent. -The project is currently in a "working proof of concept" stage. +The project is currently in a "proof of concept" stage with many useful data +operations missing but I believe it won't be a problem to implement them as +needed for anyone interested. Syntax ------ @@ -45,6 +47,8 @@ which gets expanded to the following: Observe that the whole program is enclosed in an implicit pair of `{}` and that `quote` is a very powerful special form which can replace many others if needed. +For a slightly more realistic example have a look at 'greet.ell'. + Runtime ------- All variables are put in a single global namespace with no further scoping. @@ -59,13 +63,14 @@ The last expression in a block is the return value. Special Forms ------------- -`quote <arg>` +`quote [<arg>]...` -Returns the first argument. +Returns the arguments without any evaluation. -`arg <name>...` +`arg [<name>]...` Assigns arguments to the current call in order to given names. +Names for which there are no values left are set to `[]`. Standard library ---------------- @@ -112,6 +117,18 @@ Print all items in sequence--strings directly, lists as source code. Run a system command and return its return value. +`parse <program>` + +Parse a program into a list of lists. + +`try <body> <handler>` + +Execute the body and pass any error to the handler instead of propagating it. + +`throw <message>` + +Throw an error. Messages starting on an underscore don't generate backtraces. + `+`, `-`, `*`, `/` Arithmetic operations on floating point numbers. @@ -136,6 +153,13 @@ Install development packages for GNU Readline to get a REPL for toying around: $ make repl $ ./repl +Possible Ways of Complicating +----------------------------- + * variable scoping: the simplest is to set values in the nearest scope they + can be found in but make `arg` an exception to that, just like in AWK + * reference counting: currently all values are always copied as needed, which + is good enough for all imaginable use cases, simpler and less error-prone + Contributing and Support ------------------------ Use this project's GitHub to report any bugs, request features, or submit pull |