forked from glen/fostr
42 lines
2.0 KiB
Markdown
42 lines
2.0 KiB
Markdown
# The fostr programming language
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I don't really like to write code, but I do like the things that coding can
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build for me: accounting systems for non-profits I care about, spreadsheets
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that have a reasonable calculation language for cell contents, geometric
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visualizations that really help to understand three (and maybe even four!)
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dimensions.
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So I embarked on this project to see if I could produce as comfortable a
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language as possible to work in, given that I inevitably will be doing a
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bunch of coding. The language will be centrally organized around the
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concept of "streams" (somewhat in the spirit of
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[streem](https://github.com/matz/streem) and/or
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[Orc](http://orc.csres.utexas.edu/index.shtml)). In fact all higher-type
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entities will be cast in terms of streams, or in slogan form, "++f++unctions
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and (binary) ++o++perators are ++str++eams" (hence the name "fostr").
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Other guiding principles:
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* Maximize signal to noise ratio in code, which means minimizing the number
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of symbols that have to be there just for the syntax; reducing punctuation;
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seeking brief syntax that is not too terse; etc.
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* Since code is always structurally indented anyway, make use of that and
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don't repeat information that's in the whitespace. This principle meshes
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well with the previous one, and if whitespace significance is baked into
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the language design from the ground up, it can be kept both effective and
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natural.
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* fostr code uses streams (and their specializations to functions and
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operators) all the time, so they are first-class entities that are easy
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to create, pass around, compose, etc.
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* Try to keep the constructs available as simple to reason about as possible,
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and practical to use. So side effects are OK, and it should be clear when
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they occur and in what order. And if possible, fostr will consist **only**
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of expressions, no other syntactic constructs. Everything has a value.
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<!-- /md -->
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Like just about every other language, this documentation begins with a
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[whirlwind tour](http::/studioinfinity.org/fostr/basic).
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