beginner-friendly-lang/spec.md

Contribution Guidelines

• explain why design decisions are taken
• put in TODOs into the specification for things that should be re-visited in the future

Goals

• functional programming: everything is pure, and only a function
• easy to learn, even as first programming language
• only one way of doing things. not 20. Eg: onle list type, instead of 20
• pretty easy to implement

Data types

One of:

• t -> t: pure function taking t as argument, and returning t
• { field1: xt, field2: yt }: non-nominal records
• 'Case1 t | 'Case2 t2 | 'Case3 t3: tagged unions
• with myGenericName: x: introduce "generic" type myGenericName, which can be used in type x
• &a 'EOL | 'Cons {v: t, next: a}: recursive type
• ?Identifier: the partial type Identifier
• 'Case1 t1 | 'Case2 t2 | ...?Identifier: partial tagged union type, Identifier
• {field1: xt, field2: yt, ...?Identifier}: partial non-nominal record type, Identifier

Recursive types

Recursive / self-referential types

These are not allowed to have an infinite size, for example these are illegal:

type Illegal1 = &a a

type Illegal2 = &a {x: a, y: Int8}

The definition of "infinite size" is:

• for records: if any of the field types has "infinite size"
• for unions: if all of the cases has "infinite size"
• for functions: never
• for recursive types:
  • if the type was already visited: yes
  • otherwise: if the inner type has "infinite size"

Partial types

These are types where the full definition is somewhere else (eg another compilation unit)

This type naturally adds limitations:

• for partial non-nominal records: these can not be constructed with the record construct expression
• for partial unions: they can not be pattern matched exhaustively

these limitations are removed, if the full definition is in the current scope

Example

Compilation unit 1:

type ?Uint8 = {field:type}
type Uint8 = {...?Uint8}

# this compilation does not have the limitations of partial types, because the definition for `?Uint8` is available

Compilation unit 2:

type Uint8 = {...?Uint8}

Syntax

TODO ebnf

Compatible-with

Check if type is compatible-with / assignable-to type requirements.

• a type is compatible with itself ofcourse
• a tagged union is compatible with anothr, if the other one contains at least all cases from this union, and those cases are compatible
• a non-nominal record is compatbile with anohter, if the other one contains a subset of the fields of this one, and the field types are comptible.
• a type is compatible with a partial type ?Ty, if the definition of the partial type is in the current scope, and the type is compatible with the type inside the definition
• partial records and unions are similar to the above.

TODO: need more details?

Phi unification

This process is performed on the resulting types of two merging branches

Tries, in order:

• if one of the types is a tagged union, which contains only one case with an identical type, and the other is not a tagged union, it will "attach" that case onto the other type, like this: 'N Num | 'I Int and Num -> 'N Num | 'I Int
• if one of the types is a tagged union with exactly one case, and the other one is not an union, it will put that tag onto it, and phi-merge the inner types. example: 'N Num and Num -> 'N Num
• if both types are tagged unions, the result is an tagged union contain the csaes of both tagged unions. union cases that are in both branches, will have their types phi-unified too. example: 'Ok ('N Num | 'I Int) | 'SomeErr and 'Ok Num | 'AnotherErr -> 'Ok ('N Num) | 'SomeErr | 'AnotherErr
• if both types are non-nominal records, the result will contain only fields that are present in both types. The types of the fields will get phi-unified too example: {a:Num,b:Num,c:Num} and {a:Num,c:Num,e:Num} -> {a:Num, e:Num}

"Platform library"

Depends on on the core library.

Platform / language implementation / target depedent.

Signature

############  Primitive Data types  ############
type Uint8

def Uint8.wrapping_add : Uint8 -> Uint8 -> Uint8
def Uint8.bitwise_not  : Uint8 -> Uint8
def Uint8.less_than    : Uint8 -> Uint8 -> Bool
def Uint8.bits         : Uint8 -> {7:Bool,6:Bool,5:Bool,4:Bool,3:Bool,2:Bool,1:Bool,0:Bool}

"Core library"

Depend on the platform library.

Completely platform, language implementation, and target independent.

Signature

type Unit = {}


#########  Primitive storage-only types   ##########
type Int8   = Uint8
type Int16  = {hi:Int8,  lo:Int8}
type Int32  = {hi:Int16, lo:Int16}
type Int64  = {hi:Int32, lo:Int32}
type Int128 = {hi:Int64, lo:Int64}



############  Bool   ############
type Bool = 'True | 'False
def Bool.not : Bool -> Bool
def Bool.and : Bool -> Bool -> Bool
def Bool.or : Bool -> Bool -> Bool
def Bool.nor : Bool -> Bool -> Bool
def Bool.xor : Bool -> Bool -> Bool


############  Num   ############
## arbitrary-precision signed decimal number
type Num

def Num.toStr : Num -> Char List

# consider using locale aware, and space ignoring parsing instead
# parses of format 123  /  -123  /  123.456
def Num.parseLit : Char List -> Num Option

def Num.zero : Num
def Num.one  : Num

def `a+b` : Num -> Num -> Num
def `a-b` : Num -> Num -> Num
def `a*b` : Num -> Num -> Num
def `a/b` : Num -> Num -> Num

def Num.neg : Num -> Num


############  Char  ############
# one unicode codepoint
type Char
def Char.toAscii    : Char  -> Uint8 Option
def Char.fromAscii  : Uint8 -> Char Option
def Char.encodeUtf8 : Char  -> Uint8 List
def Char.decodeUtf8 : Uint8 List  -> 'Cons {v: Char, next: Uint8 List}


############  String  ############
def String.encodeUtf8 : Char List -> Utf8 List
def String.decodeUtf8 : Uint8 List -> 'Ok Char List | 'Err {at: Num}


############  t List  ############
## A generic linked-list type
type t List = 'EOL | 'Cons {v: t, next: t List}

## List concatenate
def `a++b` : t List -> t List -> t List

## Get nth element
def List.nth : t List -> Num -> t Option


############  t Option  ############
type t Option = 'None | 'Some t

Reference Implementation

TODO

"Standard library"

Depend on the platform library and core library.

Responsible for IO

Signature

############  IO  ############
type t IO
def IO.just : t -> t IO
def IO.chain : t IO -> (t -> r IO) -> r IO


############  Stream  ############
# represents a non-seekable t-stream, for example a tcp stream
type t io.Stream

TODO: networking api: stream and datagram protocols


############  Path  ############
# paths are not absolute, but rather relative to any reference point 
type io.Path = {parent: io.Path Option, ...?io.Path}
def io.Path.eq    : io.Path -> io.Path -> Bool
def io.Path.root  : io.Path -> io.Path
def io.Path.child : io.Path -> Char List -> io.Path Option

TODO: links, permissions, ... etc


############  File  ############
type io.ReadFile
type io.WriteFile

type t io.FileOpenResult = 'Ok t | 'CantReopenThis | 'FileNotFound | 'PermissionError | 'OtherErr
def io.file.open.r  : io.Path -> io.ReadFile  io.FileOpenResult
def io.file.open.w  : io.Path -> io.WriteFile io.FileOpenResult
def io.file.open.rw : io.Path -> {r: io.ReadFile, w: io.WriteFile} io.FileOpenResult

TODO: read, write, extend, truncate

Implementation snippets

TODO: example definition of IO

(top-level) declarations

TODO

TODO: add either attribute system, or comptime exec

Mostly forward type inference

Exception 1:

def List.map : t List -> (t -> r) -> r List

# doesn't require specifying types in lambda: simple one-step backwards type inference
List.map([1,2,3], x -> x * 2)

Exception 2:

def add : Num -> Num -> Num =
  a -> b -> a + b
# ^^^^^^
# does not require specification of those types, because already specified in function signature

# this also applies to:

def add : Num -> Num -> Num
def add = a -> b -> a + b

Expressions

• expr:field access field from non-nominal record
• let varName = value exprUsingTheVar
• 'a' unicode codepoint literal, aka "char" literal. returns a Char
• [1,2,3] list literal: creates a t List, where t is equal to the type of all the wrapped expressions
• "Hello\\nworld" string literal with escape characters. same behaviour as list literal of the chars
• 12.345, or 12, or -12: same behaviour as Num.parseLit on the value (as string)
• arg -> value: one-step backwards inferrable lambda
• arg: Type -> value
• func(arg1, arg2): function application. requires at least one argument. partial function applications are allowed too
• expr :: type: down-cast type
• recExpr with fieldname: newFieldValue: overwrites or adds a field to a record type. type checking: identical to recExpr and {fieldname: newFieldValue}
• recExpr and otherRecExpr: "sum" fields together of both record expressions. type checking: phi-unify recExpr with otherRecExpr, and require that both are non-nominal record types
• if cond then a else b
• {field1: val1, field2: val2} field construction
• match expr with <match cases>: pattern matching
• a = b the equality operator
• a + b: identical to \a+b`(a, b)` name: "sum"
• a - b: identical to \a-b`(a, b)` name: "difference"
• a * b: identical to \a*b`(a, b)` name: "times"
• a / b: identical to \a/b`(a, b)` name: "over"
• a ++ b: identical to \a++b`(a,b)` name: "list concatenate"
• a => b: identical to \a=>b`(a,b)` name: "lens compose"

pattern matching

TODO

equality operator

The only operator with type overloading

TODO

coding patterns (for users only)

labelled arguments

def List.remove_prefix(prefix: t List, list: 'from t List)

List.remove_prefix([1,2], 'from [1,2,3,4])

# but this also works most of the times:
List.remove_prefix([1,2], [1,2,3,4])

OLD SPECIFICATION STARTING HERE

automatic return types

def add(a: Num, b: Num) -> _ {
  a + b
}

templated generics

# Type of add is:   template a, b: a -> b -> _
def [a,b] add(a: a, b: b) -> _ {
  a + b
}

add(1,2)

add(1)(2)  # error: partial function application of templated functions not allowed

add(1,"2")    # error: in template expansion of add[Num,List[Char]]: No definition for `Num + List[Char]`

pattern matching

type Option[t] = 'None | 'Some t

def [t] Match.`a++b`(
  # matching against this value
  value: List[t],
  # left hand side of operator
  l: List[t],
  # right hand side of operator
  r: MatchUtil.Var[List[t]]
) -> Option[{ r: List[t] }] {
  match List.remove_prefix(l, 'from value) {
    'Some rem -> 'Some { r: rem }
    'None -> 'None
  }
}

then you can do:

type Token = 'Public | 'Private | 'Err
def example(li: List[Char]) -> {t:Token,rem:List[Char]} {
  match li {
    "public" ++ rem  -> {t: 'Public Unit, rem:rem}
    "private" ++ rem -> {t: 'Private Unit, rem:rem}
    _ -> {t: 'Err Unit, rem: li}
  }
}

recursive data types

type List[t] = 'End | 'Cons {head:t, tail:List[t]}
# now you might notice an issue with this
# `type` defines non-distinct type alisases
# so what is the type of this...
# Introducing: type self references
# the above example is the same as this:
type List[t] = &a ('End | 'Cons {head:t, tail:a})

# example 2:
# a List[List[t]] is just:
&b ('End | 'Cons {head: &a ('End | 'Cons {head:t, tail:a}), tail: b})

Infinitely sized types are not allowed:

&a {x:Num, y:a}

However, infinite types without size are allowed:

&a {x:a}

This is not allowed:

&a a

module system

Each file is a "compilation unit"

When compiling a compilation unit, the following inputs have to be provided:

• any amount of files containing signatures of exported definitions. only definitions of the compilation unit that are in one of the signature files will get exported.
• any amount of other files containing imported definitions

Note that there is no practical difference between signature and source files.

Example

Export signature file List.li:

type List[t] = 'End | 'Cons {head:t, tail:List[t]}

# not providing a function body makes it a function signature definition
def [t] `a++b`(a: List[t], b: List[t]) -> List[t]

def [t] Match.`a++b`(
  value: List[t],
  l: List[t],
  r: MatchUtil.Var[List[t]]
) -> Option[{ r: List[t] }]

Import signature file Option.li:

type Option[t] = 'None | 'Some t

Compilation unit List.lu:

def [t] `a++b`(a: List[t], b: List[t]) -> List[t] {
  # ...
}

def [t] Match.`a++b`(
  value: List[t],
  l: List[t],
  r: MatchUtil.Var[List[t]]
) -> Option[{ r: List[t] }] {
  # ...
}

Notes

Each compilation unit gets compiled to implementation-specific bytecode.

Templated functions can only be compiled partially during a compilation unit. This will impact compile speeds.

Avoid templated functions wherever possible.

Hide record fields in module signatures

Signatue:

type User = {name: List[Char], ...}
  # the ... is used to indicate that this is a partial type definition
  # User, as given here, can not be constructed, but name can be accessed

Compilation unit:

type User = {name: List[Char], password: List[Char]}

Hide union variants in module signatures

Signature:

type DType = 'Int | 'UInt | 'Byte | ...
  # users of this can never do exhaustive pattern matching on this

Compilation unit:

type DType = 'Int | 'UInt | 'Byte
  # this compilation unit can actually do exhaustive pattern matching on this

Note on hidden union variants / record fields

To make these work, the following is legal:

def example() -> 'Int | 'UInt | ...

def example() -> 'Int | 'UInt | 'Byte | 'Char {
  # ...
}

Extensible unions

extensible union Plan

extend Plan with 'ReadlnPlan Unit
extend Plan with 'WritelnPlan Unit

# pattern matching against these is always non-exhaustive.
# can only pattern match with the imported extensions 

Any type

in the stdlib:

extensible union Any

type Any.LambdaCalc = 'Apply {fn: Any.LambdaCalc, arg: Any.LambdaCalc}
                    | 'Scope {idx: Uint}
                    | 'Abstr {inner: Any.LambdaCalc}
def Any.toLambda(a: Any) -> Any.LambdaCalc

It gets automatically extended with every type ever used.

Lenses

In the stdlib:

type Lens[t,f] = {get: t -> f, set: t -> f -> t}

def [a,b,c] `a=>b`(x: Lens[a,b], y: Lens[b,c]) -> Lens[a,c] {
  {
    get: t:a -> y:get(x:get(t)),
    set: t:a -> f:c -> x:set(t, y:set(x:get(t), f))
  }
}

Since a:f1:f2 is the field access syntax, the lens creation syntax is similar: &Type:field1:field2

So you can do:

type Header = {text: String, x: Num}
type Meta = {header: Header, name: String}

&Header:header:text (myHeader, "new meta:header:text value")
# which is identical to:
(&Header:header => &Meta:text) (myHeader, "new meta:header:text value")

However, it is cleaner to use with:

myHeader with header:text: "new meta:header:text value"

Pure IO

the IO[t] type contains IO "plans" which will be executed by the runtime, if they are returned by the main function.

def main() -> IO[Unit] {
  print("hey")    # warning: result (of type IO[Unit]) was ignored. expression can be removed 
  print("hello")
}
# this will only print "hello"

To make the above example print both "hey" and "hello", we need to chain the two IO types:

def main() -> IO[Unit] {
  await _ = print("hey")
  await print("hello")
}

# or just remove the _
def main() -> IO[Unit] {
  await print("hey")
  await print("hello")
}

# if you don't put in the second await:
def main() -> IO[Unit] {
  await print("hey")
  print("hello")
  # error: expected IO[Unit], got IO[IO[Unit]]; did you forget an `await`?
}

await is kinda weird. here is the syntax:

# ( await x: a = ( expr1::IO[a] ) await (expr2::IO[b]) ) :: IO[b]
expr |= 'await', (identifier, '='), expr, 'await', expr

# ( await x: a = ( expr1::IO[a] ) ( expr2::b ) ) :: IO[b]
expr |= 'await', (identifier, '='), expr, expr

# ( await (expr1::a) ) :: a
expr |= 'await', expr

Pure IO implementation

Something like this is done in the stdlib:

extensible union IO.Plan[r]
type IO[t] = 'Just {value: t}
           | 'Map template r: {of: IO[r], map: r -> IO[t]}
           | 'More template r: {plan: IO.Plan[r], then: r -> IO[t]}

def [a,b] `await a (a->b)`(io: IO[a], then: a -> b) -> IO[b] {
  'Map {of: io, map: r -> 'Just {value: then(r)}}
}

def [a,b] `await a (a->await b)`(io: IO[a], then: a -> IO[b]) -> IO[b] {
  'Map {of: io, map: r -> then(r)}
}

# in stdio:
extend IO.Plan[Uint8] with 'stdio.ReadByte {stream: Int32}
def stdio.getchar : IO[Uint8] = 'More {plan: 'stdio.ReadByte {stream: 0}, then: by -> 'Just by[0]}

def main() -> IO[Unit]

the runtime does something like this:

def [a] RUNTIME_EVAL(io: IO[a]) -> a {
  match io {
    'Just {value} -> value
    'Map {of, map} -> RUNTIME_EVAL(map(RUNTIME_EVAL(of)))
    'More {plan, then, finally} -> RUNTIME_EVAL(then(match plan {
      'ReadStream {stream} -> 'ReadStreamIOResult {data: impure perform the io here lol}
      _ -> impure error here "this runtime doesn't support this kind of IO" or sth
    }))
  }
}

def RUNTIME_ENTRY() {
  RUNTIME_EVAL ( main() )
}