Runes

Runes are special symbols or characters that serve as syntactic markers for various language constructs and operations. Runes are a key part of flexible syntax system that is used by Sire, known as Rex (R-expressions), which allows for multiple ways to express the same code structure.

Runes in Sire serve several purposes:

1. Function Definition and Application: Runes like = for defining functions and | for function application are fundamental to Sire's syntax.

2. Control Flow: Runes such as ? for creating anonymous functions or #datacase for pattern matching help control the flow of execution.

3. Metaprogramming: Some runes, like ^ for expression reordering or ' for quoting are used in metaprogramming.

4. Syntactic Sugar: Runes like : for continuation passing style or - for infix function application provide convenient shorthand notations.

Runes are one or more non-alphanumeric characters and are used at the beginning of expressions or in specific syntactic positions. They allow Sire to have a highly expressive and flexible syntax while maintaining a simple, uniform structure that's easy to parse and manipulate programmatically.

Runes

• | function application (can be omitted in nested forms: (| f a) is equal to (f a))

• - function application

• = top-level defintion

• @ let-binding

• & anonymous lambda

• ? named lambda

• ?? named and pinned lambda

• , tuples

• :| imports

• #### dependency

• * list of expressions (advanced - this can be used to circumvent the need for indentation)

Macros

• [] short form for ,

• ^ expression reordering ("anonymous where": (^ f _ b)(expr) gets rewritten to (@ _ expr | f _ b))

• : continuation passing