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

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