Thanks for the information! We are writing up a language doc/specification right now, that you all might wish to see. We are currently contemplating using either haskell or PLT Scheme (a variation of lisp) for creating the language. Once we get the language doc up, we might be willing to create a google group or google code site and start recruiting people to help us ^_^
The reasons for scheme/haskell are basically non-existant. I've wanted to learn both for awhile now. Using Ruby is always a possibility, I suppose. But I think haskell/scheme fit my language design a bit more. For example, 'lists' like in lisp are a big part of it for things like this: create number x and string y. set them to 3 and "Hello!". # 'them' is then a pronoun 'array/group/list' of the last referenced # nouns. 'set them to 3 and "Hello!".' is equivalent to set x to 3. set y to "Hello!". Another example of grouping is this: Say you have a player [struct|class|w/e I decide to make on the more OO side...] that has a 'position' variable. Position is an array with two parts. create player x and set its position to 3 and 4. This would be a specific feature for assigning arrays. On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 10:20 AM, Hugh Sasse <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, 21 Jul 2009, Timothy McDowell wrote: > > > Well, I don't intend to make it go to any sort of production level, any > sort > > of release for general audience. It's more of a test, you know? > > Fair enough. I think the use of pronouns ("it") is interesting. > > > Also, we wanted to create something like Inform 7's language (which is > > quite brilliant, check it out sometime) but not just for creating > > Yes, Inform7 is very admirable. I think the pronouns idea is > implemented in that, but even in in inform7 you have to name things > explicitly more often than one might like ( for every thing (called > the underhider) which underlies the hider:[...]) so I think this is > worth developing in itself. Though that "(called <something>)" is a > nice solution to the problem given the stylistics of the language. > > http://inform7.com/ > > for those unfamiliar with inform7. > And search for inform7 poetry. :-) > > > interactive fiction, which obviously makes it much harder. We're just a > > bunch of teens messing about tho, so don't expect much of anything ;) > > An interesting angle of language design to consider is what aspects > are made really easy to write by the language. In Forth, for > example, pretty well all parameters get passed on a stack, so that > makes function calls simpler, and reverse polish notation simplifies > some things at the cost of having to keep the stack in one's head > when reading the code. The parser in Forth is interesting as well, > it is sometimes described as a language without a syntax as uo much > can be changed. Inform7 makes handling common objects easy, as well > as movement, and other game related matters. If it has a weakness > it may be that it is mostly (apart from tables) prose, and some things > like structures are more difficult to express clearly in prose than > something that looks more like code. Lisp makes everything, > including the program, into a list. That makes manipulating the code > with code easy. But it does mean that one has to have lots of > parentheses, an obstacle to the beginner, the experienced user > barely notices them. Having a clear model of what you want to do > with the language may be useful. Perl brought us a unification of > various tools we had separately in Unix (awk, sed, grep), and Perl4 > was simpler in a number of respects than perl5. I never got to work > with perl{3 or less}. And Ruby was intended to be a better Perl, with > simpler syntax for handling objects. > > So, keep at it, you might even have something worthy of academic > publication before too long (if that's of interest). > > Hugh > > > > On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 6:45 AM, J David Eisenberg <[email protected] > >wrote: > > > > > On Mon, 20 Jul 2009, Timothy McDowell wrote: > > > > > > > I think potion is pretty cool. I'm currently working on a parser and > > > > compiler with a buddy for our own little language (haven't decided on > a > > > > name...). Here is an example: > > > > create number x and set it to 3. # can also be > > > > create number x. set it to 3. > > > > > > Reminds me a bit of COBOL. Who is the intended audience for your > language? > > > > > > > > > > > if x < 5 then > > > > print "Jumping jellyfish! 3 is less than 5!". # Can also be a one > > > liner. > > > > Periods end statements (sentences). > > > > > > > > create verb skipcount that takes a number. set skipcount to > > > > create number count and set it to 0. > > > > until count >= 50 print count. > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > J. David Eisenberg http://catcode.com/ > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > --Brains. > > > -- --Brains.
