drim/README.md

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# AlexScript

AlexScript (which is a misnomer; the language will soon be renamed
since it's not actually a scripting language) is a programming
language designed to have a functional feel and very high-level
ergonomics while maintaining speed using strictly-controlled,
deterministic memory management. The language is capable of compiling
to C (and possibly other languages in the future), allowing for
maximum portability without having to write a new backend for the
compiler for every possible target; also, the compiler and tooling
will eventually be rewritten in AlexScript to allow for maximum
portability.

## Example

```
// Calculates the nth fibonacci number.
def fibonacci (0: U32) : U32 = 0
  | fibonacci 1 = 1
  | fibonacci n = fibonacci (n - 2) + fibonacci (n - 1);

// Prompts the user for a number n, and prints the Fibonacci numbers up
// to n.
def fibPrompt
  = do {
    print "Enter a number: ";
    num <- read <$> getLine;
    sequence_ (print . fibonacci <$> (0 .. num));
  };

// Program entry point.
def main: IO ()
  = fibPrompt;
```

Note that type annotations are always optional; here they're given for
`fibonacci` and `main` for illustrative purposes, but omitted for
`fibPrompt` (for which the compiler infers the return type `IO ()`).

## Tools

This repository contains the following tools:
- `axc`, the AlexScript compiler. This can be used as a binary with a
  fairly standard compiler CLI, or as a library for use in other
  programs.

The following tools do not exist yet, but are planned:
- `axci`, the interactive AlexScript interpreter.
- `axcd`, the Language Server Protocol (LSP) server for AlexScript
  code support in editors, supporting definition peeking and lookup,
  renaming variables and modules, etc.
- `axfmt`, the standard formatter for AlexScript code; all AlexScript
  code used in this repository must be formatted with `axfmt`, and its
  use is recommended for other projects.
- `axdoc`, the documentation generator.
- `alexscript-mode`, an Emacs mode for editing AlexScript code,
  supporting syntax highlighting, automatic indentation, some basic
  keybindings for common tasks, Emacs-side LSP integration for
  communicating with `acxd`, and a collection of `yasnippet` snippets
  for inserting common AlexScript constructs.
- `alexscript-vsc`, Visual Studio Code plugins and tools for editing
  AlexScript code.
- `alexscript-vim`, tools and configuration files for optimizing Vim
  and Neovim for editing AlexScript code.

## Language features

The language is mostly influenced by Rust and Haskell: it has strict
safety requirements and borrow-checked memory management like that of
Rust, but its syntax and type system are similar to those of Haskell.

Some features the language will most likely have:
- All functions are pure by default; side effects are chained together
  using an `IO` monad.
- Despite the language's purity, expressions will be strictly
  evaluated to provide more programmer control.
- Different monads represent different levels of safety, and can be
  converted using functions marked as `UNSAFE`. The intention is that
  code can be audited by manually checking that all the `UNSAFE`
  transformations are sound, and code that contains no `UNSAFE`
  function calls are guaranteed to satisfy varying definitions of
  soundness:
  - The `IO` monad represents computations that might have side
    effects on the real world. If a computation of type `IO` is known
    by the programmer to not have side effects on the real world, then
    it can be converted to a pure computation using the standard
    library function `UNSAFE_assertPure : IO a -> a`.
  - The `MemoryUnsafe` monad represents computations that might read
    from or write to memory that is not allocated correctly: for
    example, `readPtr`, which reads from a raw pointer, is of type
    `MemoryUnsafe a` because the pointer is not known to be valid. If
    a computation has been confirmed to be safe by the programmer, it
    can be converted to an `IO` computation using
    `UNSAFE_assertMemorySafe : MemoryUnsafe a -> IO a`.
  - Further safety monads may be added in the future.
- The language achieves good performance by guaranteeing a number of
  optimizations:
  - Since the language uses a linear type system, garbage collection
    is not done; instead, values are stored on the stack unless
    explicitly declared to be on the heap, and heap-stored values are
    cleaned up at deterministic points as calculated at compile time.
  - Functions of type `Fn t -> t` are optimized into functions that
    operate on pointers to `t`, i.e., notionally, `Fn (*mut t) -> ()`,
    where `*mut t` is a mutable pointer to a type `t`.
  - Types that contain an optional, non-null pointer like `Option (Box
    a)`, `Option (Ref a)`, etc., are optimized into nullable pointers.
  - Since the language has no loops, the compiler guarantees
    optimization of tail-call recursion to loops on all functions, as
    is standard in functional languages.

## Compilation

When invoked with no flags, AlexScript by default compiles source code
directly to code that is valid C and C++, then calls the system C
compiler to generate an object file, then calls the system linker to
generate an executable file.