I wonder what other wonderful languages I've never heard of. Really, please share!
Disclaimer: I wrote this; it’s nowhere near complete, but not bad to play around with. We’re working toward a release in a few weeks, to include some missing language features and a new x86_64 runtime.
I'm really curious, as I personally see nothing good with them. The same kind of non-mathematical syntax as LISP (`1 2 +` as opposed to `+ 1 2`), without any of the goodness (code is data).
• They can be implemented very efficiently on real hardware. The stack-based VM is well established as an implementation technique for non–stack-based languages.
• Like in Lisp, the simple structure makes them suitable for useful visualisations beyond the program text. Static typing creates even more cool possibilities for such analysis.
• There is fertile ground for new research, and applying existing theory to these languages for the first time—particularly type and effect systems.
• It’s just a lot of fun. :)
// Implicitly thread state between functions.
def promptInt:
": " cat prompt
readInt
fromSome
// Write stacky code if you want.
def squareDiff:
- dup *
// Use locals as much as you need to.
"x0" promptInt ->x0
"y0" promptInt ->y0
"x" promptInt ->x
"y" promptInt ->y
x0 x squareDiff ->a
y0 y squareDiff ->b
a b + sayIntDylan: http://opendylan.org/
Euphoria: http://www.rapideuphoria.com/
Also it is still a great language for non-professional programmers and still has an active community there. Note the recently updated SDL2, SFML2, and Allegro bindings for example.
(implementation as MetaOcaml)