From a621de2d50c1fa42a019a3104574493e1c15043e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Přemysl Janouch <p.janouch@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 25 May 2017 14:38:43 +0200
Subject: Update README
---
README.adoc | 32 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----
1 file 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
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