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Update README

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Přemysl Eric Janouch 2017-05-25 14:38:43 +02:00
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README.adoc
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@ -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