Many here have mentioned syntax as a point of improvement. While I agree, I have no opinions on which variant (ML vs. C vs. Lisp) is more aesthetically appealing. Some things I look for are unambiguous indentation, easy for a machine to format and easy to parse. I think syntax should be designed to be amenable to making an IDE and other source code tooling rather than trying to meet some subjective definition of readability which is only really relevant in the small. As an example, while pretty, the (whitespace significant) version of Haskell syntax is difficult and demoralizing to write tooling for.
I will also say that ATS is currently so little used that now's the time to make pretty big changes, even slashing features ( eg. macros ). On Tuesday, February 20, 2018 at 9:19:31 AM UTC-6, Artyom Shalkhakov wrote: > > On Saturday, February 10, 2018 at 12:15:22 AM UTC+6, gmhwxi wrote: >> >> For the moment, I just want to open a thread for ATS3. >> >> I decided to pick ATS/Xanadu for the full project name. I like the name >> Xanadu >> because it is poetic and brings a feel of exoticness. >> >> > ATS3 is supposed to be compiled to ATS2. At least at the beginning. I will >> try to >> write more about what I have in mind regarding ATS3. >> >> I know that a lot of people have been complaining about the syntax of >> ATS2. So >> we can start the effort of designing some "nice" syntax for ATS3. Please >> feel free >> to post here if you would like share your opinions and ideas. >> >> > I will say what I would like to see: > > 1. IDE support (especially for the hard parts, i.e. the proofs!) > 2. the syntax is very complex (maybe simplify?) > 3. better support for flat types (e.g. flat unions, flat unboxed arrays on > stack, etc.) > 4. compilation to wasm > 5. tools (especially for building, but also package management) > 6. some kind of help for implementing various intricately-linked data > structures (doubly-linked lists, doubly-linked trees, etc.) > 7. improvements to templates (e.g. templates for indexed type variables, > is that even possible?) > > To make ATS viable, we have to make its kind of typeful programming > friendly. > > I will be happy to take the lead but we definitely need to have some form >> of community >> effort on this project given its size and scope. >> >> Cheers! >> >> --Hongwei >> >> PS: I felt rushed every time up to now when implementing ATS. This time I >> am hoping >> to have the luxury of thinking about implementation a bit before actually >> doing it :) >> >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ats-lang-users" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/ats-lang-users. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ats-lang-users/496a6b6c-e701-49b8-8b96-0d4be8aad285%40googlegroups.com.
