;;; Comments # comments ;; Single line comments start with a semicolon or a sharp sign ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;; 1. Primitive Datatypes and Operators ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;; Numbers 123 ; int 3.14 ; double 6.02e+23 ; double (int 3.14) ; => 3 : int (double 123) ; => 123 : double ;; Function application is written (f x y z ...) ;; where f is a function and x, y, z, ... are operands ;; If you want to create a literal list of data, use (quote) to stop it from ;; being evaluated (quote (+ 1 2)) ; => (+ 1 2) ;; Now, some arithmetic operations (+ 1 1) ; => 2 (- 8 1) ; => 7 (* 10 2) ; => 20 (^ 2 3) ; => 8 (/ 5 2) ; => 2 (% 5 2) ; => 1 (/ 5.0 2) ; => 2.5 ;;; Booleans true ; for true false ; for false (! true) ; => false (&& true false (prn "doesn't get here")) ; => false (|| false true (prn "doesn't get here")) ; => true ;;; Characters are ints. (char-at "A" 0) ; => 65 (chr 65) ; => "A" ;;; Strings are fixed-length array of characters. "Hello, world!" "Benjamin \"Bugsy\" Siegel" ; backslash is an escaping character "Foo\tbar\r\n" ; includes C escapes: \t \r \n ;; Strings can be added too! (strcat "Hello " "world!") ; => "Hello world!" ;; A string can be treated like a list of characters (char-at "Apple" 0) ; => 65 ;; Printing is pretty easy (pr "I'm" "Paren. ") (prn "Nice to meet you!") ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;; 2. Variables ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;; You can create or set a variable using (set) ;; a variable name can use any character except: ();#" (set some-var 5) ; => 5 some-var ; => 5 ;; Accessing a previously unassigned variable is an exception ; x ; => Unknown variable: x : nil ;; Local binding: Use lambda calculus! 'a' and 'b' are bound to '1' and '2' only within the (fn ...) ((fn (a b) (+ a b)) 1 2) ; => 3 ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;; 3. Collections ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;; Lists ;; Lists are vector-like data structures. (Random access is O(1).) (cons 1 (cons 2 (cons 3 (list)))) ; => (1 2 3) ;; 'list' is a convenience variadic constructor for lists (list 1 2 3) ; => (1 2 3) ;; and a quote can also be used for a literal list value (quote (+ 1 2)) ; => (+ 1 2) ;; Can still use 'cons' to add an item to the beginning of a list (cons 0 (list 1 2 3)) ; => (0 1 2 3) ;; Lists are a very basic type, so there is a *lot* of functionality for ;; them, a few examples: (map inc (list 1 2 3)) ; => (2 3 4) (filter (fn (x) (== 0 (% x 2))) (list 1 2 3 4)) ; => (2 4) (length (list 1 2 3 4)) ; => 4 ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;; 3. Functions ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;; Use 'fn' to create functions. ;; A function always returns the value of its last expression (fn () "Hello World") ; => (fn () Hello World) : fn ;; Use parentheses to call all functions, including a lambda expression ((fn () "Hello World")) ; => "Hello World" ;; Assign a function to a var (set hello-world (fn () "Hello World")) (hello-world) ; => "Hello World" ;; You can shorten this using the function definition syntactic sugar: (defn hello-world2 () "Hello World") ;; The () in the above is the list of arguments for the function (set hello (fn (name) (strcat "Hello " name))) (hello "Steve") ; => "Hello Steve" ;; ... or equivalently, using a sugared definition: (defn hello2 (name) (strcat "Hello " name)) ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;; 4. Equality ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;; for numbers use '==' (== 3 3.0) ; => true (== 2 1) ; => false ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;; 5. Control Flow ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;; Conditionals (if true ; test expression "this is true" ; then expression "this is false") ; else expression ; => "this is true" ;;; Loops ;; for loop is for number ;; (for SYMBOL START END STEP EXPR ..) (for i 0 10 2 (pr i "")) ; => prints 0 2 4 6 8 10 (for i 0.0 10 2.5 (pr i "")) ; => prints 0 2.5 5 7.5 10 ;; while loop ((fn (i) (while (< i 10) (pr i) (++ i))) 0) ; => prints 0123456789 ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;; 6. Mutation ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;; Use 'set' to assign a new value to a variable or a place (set n 5) ; => 5 (set n (inc n)) ; => 6 n ; => 6 (set a (list 1 2)) ; => (1 2) (set (nth 0 a) 3) ; => 3 a ; => (3 2) ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;; 7. Macros ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;; Macros let you extend the syntax of the language. ;; Paren macros are easy. ;; In fact, (defn) is a macro. (defmacro setfn (name ...) (set name (fn ...))) (defmacro defn (name ...) (def name (fn ...))) ;; Let's add an infix notation (defmacro infix (a op ...) (op a ...)) (infix 1 + 2 (infix 3 * 4)) ; => 15 ;; Macros are not hygienic, you can clobber existing variables! ;; They are code transformations.