4 ms·

ToriLisp – an ersatz Lisp for tiny birds

71 points by grzm 6y ago

sillysaurusx 6y ago
I'm disappointed this isn't literally a tool to communicate with birds, or alternatively a programming language designed for birds. Looks lovely though.
- felixr 6y ago
  I think you are looking for https://github.com/chirp-language https://github.com/chirp-language ;-)
randallsquared 6y ago
Hm. 鳥> (read "(push [1] 'Z)") ;;=> [ "'push", [ "'list", 1 ], [ "'quote", "'Z" ] ] 鳥> (eval (read "(push [1] 'Z)")) ;;=> [ "'Z", 1 ] ...shouldn't the last line be either ;;=> [ 'Z, 1 ] or ;;=> [ [ "quote", "'Z" ], 1 ] ?
- akkartik 6y ago
  The results are always Javascript literals. Javascript doesn't have symbols. So symbols are represented as strings starting with a single quote. Mildly confusing but seems easy to pick up.
  - fogus 6y ago
    As mentioned, JS does have Symbols and I started the language using them but moved away. At the moment symbols are encoded as "'foo" but I may change the prefix to something less confusing at a glance.
  - zeckalpha 6y ago
    JS does have Symbols but they are relatively modern: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Symbol https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe...
felixr 6y ago
This title really confused me. First I read Tori as Tory. Then I did not realize that 'ersatz' has a slightly different meaning in English than it has in German. In German it just means replacement, so I was wondering what it would replace. And finally I did not get what 'tiny birds' are in this context. Can anyone enlighten me? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tory
- karatinversion 6y ago
  Tori here seems to be the Japanese word, meaning bird, which has the kanji 鳥, used in the interpreter examples.
mark_l_watson 6y ago
Hey Michael, very cool! I liked the support for currying (where you mapped the partial function (+ 10)).
- hencq 6y ago
  Yeah, the automatic currying looks very nice. I was wondering how that works with optional arguments or rest arguments. At first glance I didn't see anything about that in the tutorial. It seems to me as a layman that auto-currying can only work with fixed arity functions, but I'm curious if that's indeed the case. Edit: I scanned the docs too quickly. It's answered there: > Unlike many Lisps, TL functions always expect a fixed number of arguments. For example, the + function shown above expects to receive 2 arguments and if it receives too many then and error occurs:
- akkartik 6y ago
  Even cooler: defining a function (and block) relies on currying. I think it's just syntax sugar.
- bjoli 6y ago
  I am of the opposite view. Mostly because I am world champion at forgetting to apply a function with enough arguments. I think partial applivation should be explicit, at least in dynamic languages where this is not enforced at compile-time.
thurn 6y ago
Are there any good examples of these minimal lisps which include typechecking? I'd personally like to learn more about incorporating that aspect, but it seems fairly uncommon.
- zeckalpha 6y ago
  Hackett: https://github.com/lexi-lambda/hackett https://github.com/lexi-lambda/hackett Based on this paper: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/stchang/pubs/ckg-popl2017.pdf http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/stchang/pubs/ckg-popl2017.pdf
  - girvo 6y ago
    I highly recommend people check out Alexis’ other projects too. An excellent programmer, and great writer. https://lexi-lambda.github.io https://lexi-lambda.github.io

71 points by grzm 6y ago

I'm disappointed this isn't literally a tool to communicate with birds, or alternatively a programming language designed for birds. Looks lovely though.

felixr 6y ago
I think you are looking for https://github.com/chirp-language https://github.com/chirp-language ;-)

randallsquared 6y ago

Hm. 鳥> (read "(push [1] 'Z)") ;;=> [ "'push", [ "'list", 1 ], [ "'quote", "'Z" ] ] 鳥> (eval (read "(push [1] 'Z)")) ;;=> [ "'Z", 1 ] ...shouldn't the last line be either ;;=> [ 'Z, 1 ] or ;;=> [ [ "quote", "'Z" ], 1 ] ?

akkartik 6y ago
The results are always Javascript literals. Javascript doesn't have symbols. So symbols are represented as strings starting with a single quote. Mildly confusing but seems easy to pick up.
- fogus 6y ago
  As mentioned, JS does have Symbols and I started the language using them but moved away. At the moment symbols are encoded as "'foo" but I may change the prefix to something less confusing at a glance.
- zeckalpha 6y ago
  JS does have Symbols but they are relatively modern: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Symbol https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe...

felixr 6y ago

This title really confused me. First I read Tori as Tory. Then I did not realize that 'ersatz' has a slightly different meaning in English than it has in German. In German it just means replacement, so I was wondering what it would replace. And finally I did not get what 'tiny birds' are in this context. Can anyone enlighten me? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tory

karatinversion 6y ago
Tori here seems to be the Japanese word, meaning bird, which has the kanji 鳥, used in the interpreter examples.

mark_l_watson 6y ago

Hey Michael, very cool! I liked the support for currying (where you mapped the partial function (+ 10)).

hencq 6y ago
Yeah, the automatic currying looks very nice. I was wondering how that works with optional arguments or rest arguments. At first glance I didn't see anything about that in the tutorial. It seems to me as a layman that auto-currying can only work with fixed arity functions, but I'm curious if that's indeed the case. Edit: I scanned the docs too quickly. It's answered there: > Unlike many Lisps, TL functions always expect a fixed number of arguments. For example, the + function shown above expects to receive 2 arguments and if it receives too many then and error occurs:
akkartik 6y ago
Even cooler: defining a function (and block) relies on currying. I think it's just syntax sugar.
bjoli 6y ago
I am of the opposite view. Mostly because I am world champion at forgetting to apply a function with enough arguments. I think partial applivation should be explicit, at least in dynamic languages where this is not enforced at compile-time.

thurn 6y ago

Are there any good examples of these minimal lisps which include typechecking? I'd personally like to learn more about incorporating that aspect, but it seems fairly uncommon.

zeckalpha 6y ago
Hackett: https://github.com/lexi-lambda/hackett https://github.com/lexi-lambda/hackett Based on this paper: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/stchang/pubs/ckg-popl2017.pdf http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/stchang/pubs/ckg-popl2017.pdf
- girvo 6y ago
  I highly recommend people check out Alexis’ other projects too. An excellent programmer, and great writer. https://lexi-lambda.github.io https://lexi-lambda.github.io