Matthew Consterdine's

This is the user manual for the Aqua programming language created as part of Programming Languages and Concepts. Visit the project on Github.

Aqua is a C­-like imperative language, for manipulating infinite streams. Statements are somewhat optionally terminated with semicolons, and supports both block ( /* ... */) and line comments ( // ...).Curly brackets are used optionally to extend scope. Example code can be found in the Appendices.

Before continuing, it’s helpful to familiarise yourself with Extended BNF. Special sequences are used to escape.

Usage Instruction

Once the interpreter has been compiled using the make command, you can choose to run an interactive REPL or a stored program. Executing ./mysplinterpreterwith no arguments will start in an interactive REPL . You should save your program files as <filename>.spl and pass the location as the first argument to ./mysqlinterpreter. As data is read from standard in, you can pipe files in using the < operator, or pipe programs in using the | operator, allowing you to create programs that manipulate infinite streams.

• Starting the interactive REPL: ./mysplinterpreter
• Executing a saved program: ./mysplinterpreter <file> [ < <input> ]
• Using infinite streams: <program> | ./mysplinterpreter <file>

Programs are executed in multiple stages:

1. Entire program is loaded into a string (Unix line endings required)
2. Program is lexed into Tokens
3. Tokens are parsed into an Abstract Syntax Tree (Left associative with the exception of lambdas)
4. Types are checked to ensure logical behaviour
5. Finally the Abstract Syntax Tree is executed

Types

Our programming language has 4 basic types: unit, int, pair, and lambda. From these types we can create the complex data types: bools with a simple comparison to 0, lists from pairs, and strings from lists. In addition lambda definitions can be nested to allow both currying and multiple parameters.

Our language is strongly, statically typed. Types are defined using the following Extended BNF grammar:

type	= unit | int | pair < <type> , <type> > | <type> ­> <type>

Values

Complex data types are automatically decomposed into the basic types before they can be used in the program.

unit	= ?[]?
int	= [ 0	( b | o | x ) ] { <digit> | _ }	(* Bin/Oct/Dec/Hex *)
pair	= ?[? <value> . <value> ?]?
lambda	= lambda ?(? <type> <identifier> = <value> ?)? <expression>
bool	= true | false
list	= ?[? <value> { , <value> } ?]?
string	= " [ { <character> } ] "

Variables

Variables are used to store dynamic values, with assignment similar to most C­like programming languages. To allow scoping, variables are implemented and type checked using two separate environment trees. As a result, you can access and manipulate variables higher in the tree, and variables that leave scope are lost.

Identifiers must be at least 1 character, start with a letter, and lexed using: [a­zA­Z][a­zA­Z0­9­_]*

bind	= <type> <identifier> = <value>
lookup	= <identifier>
rebind	= <identifier> ( = | += | ­= | *= | /= | %= | &= | ^= | ?|?= ) <value>
unbind	= unbind <identifier>

Math

Like most C­like languages, our language supports all common unary and binary math operators:

unary	= ( ! | + | ­ ) <value>
binary	= <value> ( + | ­ | * | / | % | ^ | & | ⊻| ?|? ) <value>

Also, various math related functions are built in (You can also call the above with math.plus for example):

math. (random | min | max | abs | sign | sqrt | ln | log | fact | ... ) …

random takes a number of parameters. Zero = bool, One = between 0 and value, Two = between the values.

Input/Output

Our programming language provides many inbuilt functions for manipulating standard input/output/error.

input	= console.read_ ( int | string | bool )
output	= console.print [ ln ] _ ( int | string | bool ) <value>
error	= console.error [ ln ] _ ( int | string | bool ) <value>
clear	= console.clear

The int, string, or bool instructs the interpreter on how to interpret the value it receives. For example:

raw = 65	int = 65	string = "A"	bool = true

Conditionals

Conditionals evaluate an expression if another evaluates to true. In our programming language 0 and unit evaluate to false, and every other value evaluates to true. This allows nice concise comparisons.

if	= if <condition> then <consequent> [ else <alternative> ] done
ternary  = <condition> ? <consequent> : <alternative>
coalesce = <condition> ?? <default>
compare  = <value> ( > | >= | < | <= | == | != ) <value>

Any expression can be used as the condition for a conditional, not just a comparison.

Loops

Our programming language implements the 3 traditional loops any programmer has come to expect, plus loop which is equivalent to while true. Use break, continue and return to manipulate flow.

loop	= loop <expression>
while	= while <condition> do <expression>
do	= do <expression> while <condition>
for	= for <bind> ; <condition> ; <action> then <expression>

If you wish to use multiple expressions inside the loop,you can add matching curly braces.

Functions

Once a function has been created using a lambda expression, you can apply a value to it, to execute the code stored within. The syntax for doing so is very simple: <lambda> ?(? <value> ?)?.This can be chained if there are nested lambdas.A side effect of this allows you to create a nested lambda and curry it.

int ­> int times10 = lambda (int value) (value * 10); times10 (20);

Lists

Our programming language has inbuilt support for Scheme­like pairs and lists. You can use cons, head, and tail to build and access the pairs.These pairs can be used to easily create a tree structure: [[1 . 2] . [3 . 4]]. Alternatively to build lists, you can use a nice shorthand just like in Scheme:

(cons 1 (cons 2 (cons 3 [])))  [1 . [2 . [3 . []]]]  [1, 2, 3, []]  [1, 2, 3]

In addition, our language provides a number of inbuilt functions allowing you to manipulate lists,functionally.

map	= list.map	<lambda> <list>
fold	= list.fold	<lambda> <list>  <accumulator>
filter	= list.filter <lambda> <list>
limit	= list.limit	<list>	<value>
length	= list.length <list>

strings are simply lists of ints, therefore you can use any of the above to manipulate them, or string.lower <list>, and string.upper <list> to manipulate case and string.rev <list> to reverse it.

Miscellaneous

You can use assert <value> and exit to halt (un­)conditionally in your program.

Error Messages

Appendix

Hello World

console.println_string "Hello, World!";

Factorial

int ­> int factorial = lambda (int n) {
	int result = 1;
	for int i = 1; i <= n ­ 1; i += 1 then
		result *= i;
	result;
};

console.println_int factorial (5);

FizzBuzz

for int i = 0; i <= 99; i += 1 then {
	if i % 15 == 0 then
		console.println_string "FizzBuzz"
	else if i % 3 == 0 then
		console.println_string "Fizz"
	else if i % 5 == 0 then
		console.println_string "Buzz"
	else
		console.println_int i
	done done done
}

Guessing Game

console.println_string "I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10 (inclusive)";
int number = math.random 1 10;
int guess  = console.read_int;

if number == guess then
	console.println_string "You guessed correctly!"
else
	console.println_string "Better luck next time!"
done;

Functional List Operations

console.println_int list.filter (lambda (int x) x) [1,2,3,0];
console.println_int list.fold (lambda (int x) (lambda(int y) (x+y))) [1,2,3] 1;
console.println_int list.limit [1,2,3] 2;
console.println_int list.map (lambda (int x) (x+1)) [1,2,3];