`{}` mae. `{}`

maps are everything. an experiment in language construction with an incidental lisp syntax.

usage.

start the repl with python mae.py.

run a script with python mae.py <file>.

prelude.mae is automatically loaded at startup.

syntax.

we use lisp syntax, kind of. definitions use def. maps use curly braces. commas and colons are whitespace. calling maps is indexing into them.

functions are infinite maps, i.e. maps that do not precompute. they take inputs and produce output. hence, their syntax looks like this:

{(input args) -> (output expression)}

why lisp syntax?

because i am lazy, lisp is easy to parse, and syntax doesn’t matter. i mean, did you look at the error messages?

data types

the fun is in the definitions.

booleans.

true is the map with one entry. false is the empty map. anything else is not a boolean (but you can make it one by using (neg (empty? <map>))).

integers.

numerical values are maps with n entries. any map can be an integer. there is a reader expression for array syntax using brackets; it just generates the indices. there are reader literals, but since the only way to generate a key is to generate a recursively different map, any number over 5 is gnarly, and over 25 it becomes borderline unusable. fun.

arrays.

maps with integral keys can be used like arrays.

control structures

or: is this your card?

conditionals.

conditionals are maps from true and false to other values. we can thus define the function

(def if
  {(cond a b) -> (({true a false b} cond))}) ; branches are nullary infinite maps

multi-branch conditionals work the same way, but there is no function for them.

loops

loops happen when we iterate over maps. you have foldr, map, and filter at your disposal.

(def print-all-keys {(m) -> (map {(k v) -> (prn k)} m)})

functions

if you have pure bounded functions, why not express them as maps instead? computation is an illusion of numbers in time anyway.

faqs

is this functional programming?

it is maptional programming, naturally.

should i just read this, chuckle, and leave?

yes, you should.

how can i support the development of mae?

mae is not currently being developed, but, if you want to show your love, be kind to someone else.

hellerve-pl-experiments/mae

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