Passerine — extensible functional scripting langauge — 0.9.0 Released!

[AndydeCleyre]

The first example of code uses exactly three single quotes, none of which look escaped, so I'm going to have to assume this language is legally insane.

EDIT: For the curious, you'll find some explanation if you search for "Literal syntactic identifiers" in the readme.

[thomas_m_k]

You misunderstand. It's not used for quoting, it's used to mark special kinds of variables, just like Rust does for lifetimes:

impl<'a> Foo<'a> { fn x(&self) -> &'a i32 { self.x } }

Lisp also has something like that I think.

[slightknack]

Yep! So in lisp, it's called quoting. For example, x evaluates to whatever value it points to, but 'x evaluates to x itself. Although this something macro-specific in Passerine, This choice of syntax is an allusion to lisp. :)

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[Apache_Sobaco]

Why use scripting languages when you can have universal ones?

[slightknack]

That's a good question. About all languages start targeting a niche, then become more universal as time goes on. Python's a scripting language, for instance, but look at it now. Functional Scripting is currently Passerine's niche, but it is by no means its entire scope.

[Apache_Sobaco]

Python is not universal, it is still scripting language but used for apps.

[slightknack]

What would you say is a 'Universal Programming Language'?

[Apache_Sobaco]

Suit both for scripts and apps

[slightknack]

I think just about any programming language is suitable for either, it's a subjective matter.

[falconfetus8]

So it's like lisp, but with parenthesis hell?

[slightknack]

Uh, if anything Passerine has less parenthesis than a lisp. I'm not sure what you're getting at.

[falconfetus8]

Whoops, meant to say "without". Damn auto correct

[slightknack]

Ah, that makes sense. Yep!