/dale

Lisp-flavoured C

Primary LanguageC++BSD 3-Clause "New" or "Revised" LicenseBSD-3-Clause

Dale

Build Status

Dale is a system (no GC) programming language that uses S-expressions for syntax and supports syntactic macros. The basic language is similar to C, with the following additional features:

  • local type deduction;
  • overloaded functions;
  • anonymous functions;
  • function structs;
  • reference parameters;
  • initialisers and destructors;
  • namespaces;
  • modules;
  • concepts; and
  • compiler introspection.

Supported systems

This should be usable on most Linux/OS X/BSD systems where LLVM is able to be built. It has been tested on the following:

  • Debian 7.8, 8.0 (x86 and x86-64)
  • OS X 10.9.2
  • FreeBSD 10.0 (x86-64)

Documentation

Index
As single page

Install

Dependencies

  • LLVM (3.2-3.5)
  • libffi

Out-of-tree (recommended)

mkdir ../build
cd ../build
cmake ../dale
make
make tests
make install

In-tree

cmake .
make
make tests
make install

Examples

hello-world

(import cstdio)

(def main (fn extern-c int (void)
  (printf "hello, world\n")))
> hello, world

hello-name

(import cstdio)

(def main (fn extern-c int (void)
  (def name (var auto (p (const char)) "name"))
  (printf "hello, %s\n" name)))
> hello, name

type-deduction

(import cstdio)
(import stdlib)

(def main (fn extern-c int (void)
  (let ((a \ 1)
        (b \ 2))
    (printf "%d\n" (+ a b)))))
> 3

overloading

(import cstdio)
(import cstdlib)

(def Point (struct intern ((x int) (y int))))

(def + (fn intern Point ((a Point) (b Point))
  (let ((r Point ((x (+ (@: a x) (@: b x)))
                  (y (+ (@: a y) (@: b y))))))
    (return r))))

(def main (fn extern-c int (void)
  (let ((a Point ((x 1) (y 2)))
        (b Point ((x 3) (y 4)))
        (c Point (+ a b)))
    (printf "%d %d\n" (@: c x) (@: c y)))))
> 4 6

anonymous-functions

(import cstdio)
(import stdlib)

(def main (fn extern-c int (void)
  (let ((anon-fn \ (fn int ((n int)) (* 2 n))))
    (printf "%d\n" (anon-fn 5)))))
> 10

macros

(import cstdio)
(import stdlib)
(import macros)

(using-namespace std.macros
  (def unless (macro intern (condition statement)
    (qq do
      (and (not (uq condition))
           (do (uq statement) true)))))

  (def main (fn extern-c int (void)
    (unless (= 1 2)
      (printf "1 does not equal 2\n"))
    (return 0))))
> 1 does not equal 2

typed-macros

(import cstdio)
(import macros)

(using-namespace std.macros
  (def + (macro intern ((a int) (b int) (c int))
    (qq do (+ (uq a) (+ (uq b) (uq c))))))

  (def main (fn extern-c int (void)
    (printf "%d\n" (+ 1 2 3)))))
> 6

introspection

(import introspection)
(import macros)

(def Point (struct intern ((x int) (y int))))

(using-namespace std.macros
  (def show-struct-details (macro intern (st)
     (let ((name  \ (@:@ st token-str))
           (count \ (struct-member-count mc st)))
       (printf "Struct: %s\n"       name)
       (printf "Member count: %d\n" count)
       (let ((i \ 0))
         (for true (< i count) (incv i)
           (printf "Member %d: %s\n" (+ i 1) (struct-member-name mc st i))))
       (nullptr DNode))))

  (def main (fn extern-c int (void)
    (show-struct-details Point)
    0)))
> Struct: Point
> Member count: 2
> Member 1: x
> Member 2: y

error-reporting

(import introspection)
(import macros)

(using-namespace std.macros
  (def assert-is-struct (macro intern (st)
    (let ((count \ (struct-member-count mc st)))
      (and (= -1 count)
           (do (report-error mc st "struct type does not exist")
               true))
      (return (nullptr DNode)))))

  (def main (fn extern-c int (void)
    (assert-is-struct Point)
    0)))
> ./error-reporting.dt:13:23: error: struct type does not exist (see macro at 13:5)

derivations

(import derivations)

(def Point (struct intern ((x int) (y int))))

(std.concepts.implement Struct Point)
(std.concepts.instantiate relations Point)

(def main (fn extern-c int (void)
  (let ((p1 Point ((x 1) (y 2)))
        (p2 Point ((x 3) (y 4))))
    (and (!= p1 p2)
         (do (printf "p1 and p2 are not equal\n") true))
    (and (<= p1 p2)
         (do (printf "p1 is less than or equal to p2\n") true))
    (and (> p2 p1)
         (do (printf "p2 is more than p1\n") true))
    0)))
> p1 and p2 are not equal
> p1 is less than or equal to p2
> p2 is more than p1

containers

(import vector)
(import array)
(import algorithms)
(import cstdio)

(using-namespace std.concepts
  (instantiate Vector int)
  (instantiate Array int 10)
  (instantiate copy (Iterator (Vector int))
                    (Iterator (Array int 10))))

(def main (fn extern-c int (void)
  (let ((vec (Vector int))
        (arr (Array int 10))
        (i int))
    (for (setv i 0) (< i 10) (incv i)
      (push-back vec i))
    (copy (begin vec) (end vec) (begin arr))
    (let ((b \ (begin arr))
          (e \ (end arr)))
      (for true (!= b e) (setv b (successor b))
        (printf "%d " (@source b))))
    (printf "\n")
    0)))
> 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 

Bugs/problems/suggestions

Please report to the GitHub issue tracker.

Licence

See LICENCE.