zcauchemar

zcauchemar is an implementation of cauchemar, a stack-based programming language inspired by FORTH but more arcane.

Emulates the look and feel of a programming language from the 60s to early 70s.
Lacks variables and registers.
Single global stack which stores 32-bit signed integers, booleans, and strings.
No side-effects, can only print values to a terminal.
No Read-Eval-Print-Loop.

PROGRAM:
  "Hello, world!" PRINT                ; Display "Hello, world!"
  16 32 + 4 2 * /                      ; Calculate (16 + 32) / (4 * 2)
  DUP PRINT                            ; Print the result
  DUP 6 EQUALS ASSERT                  ; Validate the result
  PLUS-FORTY-TWO                       ; Call routine "PLUS-FORTY-TWO"
  
  DUP 50 GREATER-THAN                  ; Check if the result is greater than 50
  IF   "This is wrong" PRINT
  ELSE "This is right" PRINT
  THEN
 
  DUP                                  ; We'll use this thrice

  COUNTING-DOWN-NAIVE
  COUNTING-DOWN
  48 COUNTING-UP
  
PLUS-FORTY-TWO:
  42 +                                 ; Add 42 to the top of the stack

COUNTING-DOWN-NAIVE:
  DO DUP PRINT
     1 -
     DUP 0 GREATER-THAN 
  WHILE
  DROP

COUNTING-DOWN: 0 SWAP TO COUNTING
COUNTING-UP: 0 TO COUNTING
COUNTING: DO PRINT IS-EMPTY NOT WHILE

zcauchemar is the successor to the original implementation in Rust.

Planned features

Runtime-allocated Strings
User input ("Requests")
General value containers for long-live variables ("Blocks")
Extensive standard library
- Math routines
- String routines
- Stack manipulation routines
- Terminal IO routines
Interactive session
- Hopefully runs within the web browser for accessibility

Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q)

Why did you make this?

This programming language came from my dreams and it left a mark on me.

I thought it would be funny to make a real.

At the same time, I feel like it's quite interesting to explore a stack-based programming language and roleplay as if we're in some "false-past" of early computing, akin to the world building you find in Zachtronics games.

Today, stack-based computing takes a more background role as they're still widely-used as the basis of many virtual machines for a garden variety of programming languages or computing environments (i.e. WebAssembly, JVM, CPython, CLR).

What does the name mean?

"Cauchemar" is the French word for "Nightmare" which is the origin of the programming language.

How do you pronounce the name?

This section is left as an excercise for the reader.

Can I use this on production?

No, that's silly.

Why did you reimplement this in Zig?

I originally wrote Cauchemar as an exercise to learn Rust.

At the end, while I'm happy that I got something nice to show to people, I personally find Rust to be uncomfortable.

While I could spend time writing down the reasons why, I find that to be unproductive since ultimately, this is a personal opinion based on my experience.

If you want a written explanation, see Why Zig When There is Already C++, D, and Rust?.

Either way, I looked for alternatives, found Zig, and did this to learn it.

By the end, I'm met with a new implementation that is 7x faster than the original:

Rust (cargo build -r):

$ hyperfine -N --warmup 24 './target/release/cauchemar ./examples/fib.cauchemar'
Benchmark 1: ./target/release/cauchemar ./examples/fib.cauchemar
  Time (mean ± σ):      43.6 ms ±   0.7 ms    [User: 42.2 ms, System: 0.7 ms]
  Range (min … max):    41.2 ms …  45.6 ms    68 runs

Zig (zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseSafe):

$ hyperfine -N --warmup 24 './zig-out/bin/zcauchemar ./examples/fib.cauchemar'
Benchmark 1: ./zig-out/bin/zcauchemar ./examples/fib.cauchemar
  Time (mean ± σ):       6.0 ms ±   0.3 ms    [User: 5.1 ms, System: 0.5 ms]
  Range (min … max):     5.6 ms …   7.3 ms    520 runs

I acknowledge that my implementation in Rust isn't the best (in fact, I think it's really bad) but for both, it's my first implementation of cauchemar as an exercise to learn the language. In a way, both are my first "Hello, world!" program for both Zig and Rust.

So, as a result, I'm pretty happy with Zig and will continue using it in the forseeable future.

yukiisbored/zcauchemar