Ginger

A lisp-like language built on the go programming language. The ideas are still a work-in-progress, and this repo is where I'm jotting down my notes.

Walkthrough

This is a number which evalutates to 5:

5

This is a string, as it contains no whitespace:

ImJustAString

This is also a string, it can contain anything:

"! I'm the king of the world !"

This is a list. It evaluates to a linked-list of its elements (not lisp-like!):

(a b c d)

This is a string:

+

This is a string being evaluated, it will return a function:

:+

This is a list, with a string and two numbers:

(+ 1 2)

This is a list, with a function and two numbers:

(:+ 1 2)

This is a list being evalutated, the first item in the list must be a function:

:(:+ 1 2)

This is a list in a list:

((a b) foo bar)

This is an anonymous function, it takes in the arguments a and b, and returns their sum:

#((a b)
    :(:+ :a :b))

map takes in a function and a list, and calls the function on each item in the list. The following will return (1 2 3):

:(:map               ; This is a comment, it's ignored
    #((a) (:+ :a 1)) ; <- Increment function
    (0 1 2))

name names a value. After the following call, :ted will always evalutate to 5:

:(:name ted 5)

You can name any value, including functions:

:(:name increment #((a) :(:+ a 1)))

Now the map example above can be simplified down to:

:(:map :increment (0 1 2))