2017-03-10 05:23:59 +00:00
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# gst
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2017-02-09 20:02:59 +00:00
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2017-04-25 22:22:43 +00:00
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GST is a language and vm that is small and embeddable, has metaprogramming
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facilities, can interoperate with C, and has enough features to make it
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a useful general purpose programming language. It is a modern variant of
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Lisp with several native useful datatypes. Some of the more interesting and
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useful features are first class functions and closures, immutable and mutable
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hashtables, arrays, and bytebuffers, macros (NYI), tail-call optimization,
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and continuations (coroutines, error handling). The runtime and bootstrapping
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compiler are written in C99, but should eventually be completely compatible
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with C89 compilers.
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As of April 2017, still WIP. While the basic runtime is in place, as are many
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native functions, several important features are still being implemented and
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defined, like continuations and macros. These are also dependant on the
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compiler being ported to gst, which is ongoing. The module system is also not yet
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fully defined.
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Currently, there is a repl for trying out the language, as well as the ability
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to run script files. This client program is separate from the core runtime, so
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gst could be embedded into other programs.
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## Compiling and Running
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Clone the repository and run:
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```sh
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make run
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```
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To build the runtime and launch a repl. The GNU readline library is
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also required for the repl/client, but is not a dependency of the gst runtime.
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## Basic programs
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To run some basic programs, run the client with one argument, the name of the
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file to run. For example, the client that is built will be located in the
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client directory, so running a program `script.gst` from the project directory
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would be
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```sh
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client/gst script.gst
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```
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2017-06-10 21:44:02 +00:00
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## Todo
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* Use serialization to allow creation of bytecode files that can be loaded.
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This includes defining a file format for the bytecode files.
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* Better error messages, expecially for compilation. This probably means string
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formating functions.
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* Pattern matching/regex library.
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* Macro/specials system that happens before compilation
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* Module system that happens before compilation. This would be closely tied to
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the macro/specials system (require implemented as compile time special). For
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now, a runtime require might make more sense.
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* Change name (gst is the name of many projects, including GNU Smalltalk).
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Maybe make logo :)?
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* Automated testing, including Makefile target.
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* Travis CI.
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* Change C API to be stack based for fewer potential memory management
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problems. This could mean making current C API internal and use separate
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API externally.
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* Store source information in parallel data structure after parsing
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* Use source information during compilation
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* Bitwise operators that operate on integer types
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* Use Lua style memory alocator backend C API (one single function for
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allocating/reallocating/freeing memory).
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* More CLI functionality for main client
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* Document builtin libraries and functions.
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* Document C API.
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* More builtin libraires.
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* Fuzzing
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