Jinx: Embeddable scripting language for real-time applications | Hacker News Reader

Jinx: Embeddable scripting language for real-time applications

github.com

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I have been using Jinx for some time, evaluating it for use in an environment made for first-time programming. In particular, to me, the function signature syntax is by far the most interesting part of it. I’ve never seen a language before that has optional parts (`function {x} (is) divisible by {y}`), alternative parts (`function {x} is/are even`), or a variety of argument passing styles (collections with/without wrapping parentheses, labeled arguments).

The tutorial document is quite well written and is a great read to understand the language more.

Looking through the Tutorial, the language has a very-english-like syntax to it

For example. variables and functions can have spaces. Words are favored over operators

    set some variable to 123

You can even use possesive's

    set c to x's size
    set c to guess' size

I fin this a little offputting between biases against COBOL and friends, dealing with the parsing ambiguities when writing, and dealing with reading it. I feel like a very good syntax highlighter would be essential to write in this language.

Doing some searching, it is intended to act as executable psuedocode: https://www.reddit.com/r/cpp/comments/tv4l67/comment/i3bsdh6...

Considering it's supposed to be a true scripting language instead of a JavaScript replacement, the verbosity may not be too bad.

Another thing I forget to mention, since I'm only using single scripts, is the fact that Jinx has per-script execution stacks. So, not only does it support coroutine-based concurrency, but also script-based. Each script maintains its own state and can be long-running, without affecting other scripts' operation.

Like the overall concept --- but the name is questionable.

Jinx (n) - One that brings bad luck

Are developers particularly superstitious?

Developers are people so some are more superstitious than others. But why antagonize any of them or stigmatize the language itself unnecessarily?

Is the name intended to convey something of relevance other than a bad omen or a warning?

This is interesting. While languages like Python, Lisp and probably Lua can run on a microcontroller, they are never going to be completely trusted unless you have control over memory use. In Jinx it seems like you can/must define your own memory allocation function.

Just FYI: Lua also allows you to provide your own allocator function.

In fact, the core API function to create a new Lua state (lua_newstate()) requires an allocator function but usually people use a library API function (luaL_newstate()) for state creation that calls the core API using an allocator based on the standard C functions.

interesting, so it is async, and has no garbage collection(good for real-time), mainly for video games(to replace Lua?)

can this work like micropython for mcu or low-end chips but does true real-time control(e.g. controlling a motor or something at milli or micro seconds granularity)? the real-time term can mean so many use scenarios.

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