Building a new proper left-to-right executing programming language
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Most of spoken languages are written LtR (Left-to-Right) but Maths, the number language, is actually written RtL because the decimal numbers are Arabic numerals. (I know, most will get surprised, but it's true about Maths RtL direction.) But somehow the RtL and LtR languages got mixed up. Instead of writing
x = a + 12
how about changing it to
a + 12 = x
So, what are your views on creating a new programming language which follows proper LtR execution? Is there already such language? (Please, just don't remind me that there are already lots of programming languages (I know already) and I must not (try to) create one more. :) )
Forth (programming language) - Wikipedia[^] It never fails to amuse me how the young ones forget their history, if, indeed, they bother to learn it in the first place. Oh - and it's
x @ 12 + x !
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That sounds interesting. Other than it uses Forth. :cool: That last thing I read about Forth was many years ago. It was about the development of the SPARC processor and Sun workstations. They embedded Forth in its ROMs and wrote the boot loader in it. As I recall, it came up and ran on the first attempt.
"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"
I liked Forth a lot, but then I grew up on assembly language. The whole TIL (threaded interpreted language) scheme is extremely simple and is easily ported to different processors. One of the main problems with Forth is that the programmer is assumed to be an expert. There's pretty much no hand holding. Forth Inc. is still in business too (www.forth.com).
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I liked Forth a lot, but then I grew up on assembly language. The whole TIL (threaded interpreted language) scheme is extremely simple and is easily ported to different processors. One of the main problems with Forth is that the programmer is assumed to be an expert. There's pretty much no hand holding. Forth Inc. is still in business too (www.forth.com).
I didn't care for Forth. I didn't grasp it immediately and it was always a struggle for me to deal with. The same applies to RPN for me. I think I was the only one in my engineering school who didn't have an HP calculator. Coincidentally, I went to school in the same town where HP designed and built them at the time.
"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"
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I didn't care for Forth. I didn't grasp it immediately and it was always a struggle for me to deal with. The same applies to RPN for me. I think I was the only one in my engineering school who didn't have an HP calculator. Coincidentally, I went to school in the same town where HP designed and built them at the time.
"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"
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Most of spoken languages are written LtR (Left-to-Right) but Maths, the number language, is actually written RtL because the decimal numbers are Arabic numerals. (I know, most will get surprised, but it's true about Maths RtL direction.) But somehow the RtL and LtR languages got mixed up. Instead of writing
x = a + 12
how about changing it to
a + 12 = x
So, what are your views on creating a new programming language which follows proper LtR execution? Is there already such language? (Please, just don't remind me that there are already lots of programming languages (I know already) and I must not (try to) create one more. :) )
My views ? 1. you are wasting your time. 2. using = for assignment is evil, but, perhaps a necessary one we are stuck with forever. 3. post-fix (RPN) is no more natural, or unnatural, than any other notation. a great benefit of RPN is that you can parse it without need for recursive descent to figure out execution order.
«Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?» T. S. Elliot
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I like it because of it's interactive nature. Write a 'word' and you can test it immediately. Made for much quicker development at the time. Also, it was relatively easy to make a multitasking Forth (round robin scheduling).
Take a look at the PostScript manual. As far as I can see its FORTH with extra graphics bits.
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Take a look at the PostScript manual. As far as I can see its FORTH with extra graphics bits.
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You can already read this right to left. "=" is read as "is assigned to" not "equals". duh!
x = a + 12
Could be read as
12 added to a is assigned to x
Or left to right:
x is assigned a added to 12
Is your language going to support order of operations that follow neither direction?
englebart wrote:
x is assigned a added to 12
You wrote in English. It is like passive voice. Instead of "I have done this" you are writing "It has been done by me". If we write
x = a + 12, it can be understood like this: (1) create a variable "x" (allocate memory), (2) add value of the variable "a" to 12 (store the sum somewhere in memory), (3) store the sum in variable "x". If we writea + 12 = x(ORa + 12 -> x), it can be understood like this: (1) add the value of variable "a" to 12 (store the sum somewhere in memory), (3) Create a variable "x" (allocate memory), (4) store the sum in variable "x". In the first approach, it is like - the system is allocating memory first without knowing the result. In the second approach, it is like - the system is first determining the result and then allocating memory according to the result. This second approach looks more logical way of executing and writing code. I think, the 1st approach is suitable to programming languages of .NET, C based, Java, etc. where variables needed to be defined before assigning values; while the 2nd approach is suitable for languages like JavaScript, PHP, etc. where variables can be defined/initialized anywhere in the code. -
Or use a good one, already invented. POP-2 - Wikipedia[^] With lambdas, managed mem, closures (full and partial), user-defined operators, user-defined setter functions, functions with multiple results, incremental compiler ... And with alternative ltr syntaxes: `f(a,b) ->x ->y` or `a; b.f() ->x ->y`
Wow! That's what I am talking about. It seems very much similar to my idea of a proper logical programming language. Thank you. :thumbsup:
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Most of spoken languages are written LtR (Left-to-Right) but Maths, the number language, is actually written RtL because the decimal numbers are Arabic numerals. (I know, most will get surprised, but it's true about Maths RtL direction.) But somehow the RtL and LtR languages got mixed up. Instead of writing
x = a + 12
how about changing it to
a + 12 = x
So, what are your views on creating a new programming language which follows proper LtR execution? Is there already such language? (Please, just don't remind me that there are already lots of programming languages (I know already) and I must not (try to) create one more. :) )
In mathematical language, right-to-left or left-to-right is inconsequential pertaining to an equal sign due to complete commutativity law of equivalence.