59 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
59 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
# "A Simple Scheme In 20 Minutes"
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## Description
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A version of James Coglan's
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["A Language In 20 Minutes"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqhL-BDT8lg)
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(hit the link for the whole 40 minute presentation). It took me about
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three hours to make this work. This version is tighter, using
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Coffeescript and PegJS instead of Javascript
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and whatever parser/lexer he described.
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## Purpose
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When I went to university, my degree was deliberately steered away from
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the esoterica of compilers and interpreters. My degree and financial
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backing was predicated on my getting "practical" programming skills, so
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I took classes in COBOL, Fortran, ADA, SQL, Accounting, and similar
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subjects intended to make me a "financial products" programmer.
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The Internet came along and gave me a much more interesting career, but
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now it's time to rectify the shortcoming of my education and study
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programming languages themselves. This is a "My First Programming
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Language." Just trying to
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[keep my skills up](http://www.elfsternberg.com/2015/03/15/paying-dues-studying-masters/).
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## Usage
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It only has three special forms: 'define', 'lambda', and 'if'. It
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understands addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and
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equality for the purposes of the 'if' special form, although it's
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clearly treating arithmetic as 'special forms' for the purpose of doing
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the math. It's good enough to handle lexical scoping and recursion, and
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it handles basic integer arithmetic. There is a bug is the lexer such
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that symbols that start with a numeral won't be read right, but I'm too
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lazy to fix it.
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It has no macros. Sorry about that.
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## Requirements
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Coffeescript, pegjs.
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## LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT NOTICE: NO WARRANTY GRANTED OR IMPLIED
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Copyright (c) 2015 Elf M. Sternberg
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Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any
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purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
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copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
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THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
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WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
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MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
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ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
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WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
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ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
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OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
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