
XXL: A minimal vector programming language (2016) - kick
https://github.com/tlack/xxl
======
tlack
Author here! Sadly the implementation is pretty slow and very memory leaky but
I still like a lot of the ideas that XXL explored. I hope to have some kind of
spontaneous mental breakthrough in the future and jump back into it.

Previously on HN:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11379461](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11379461)

Also, kick - enjoying your vector language submissions on HN lately, keep it
up

~~~
_se
This is a really silly question, but what font/theme are you using in the
first json example screenshot in the GitHub readme? I love it!

~~~
_se
For anyone else that ends up seeing this, the font is Source Code Pro and
theme is Lucius.

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tom_mellior
From the Readme I don't see what's "vector" about this language.

~~~
tlack
XXL is array oriented. All values are arrays, even what are usually considered
scalar values. Verbs decide how they should behave with single item array
arguments. Verbs like the math functions automatically apply themselves to the
entire array. This removes a lot of need for looping constructs, which are
discouraged in XXL. Some examples:

    
    
        3,6,9 * 3
        (9,18,27)
        3 * 3
        9
    

Let me know if this makes sense so I can update the readme correspondingly.

~~~
tom_mellior
This is cool, thanks! Yes, I think the Readme could do with more smaller
examples early on.

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monsieurbanana
Minor nitpick, but I really wish the code in the screenshot had more newlines
in it.

~~~
MattRix
Yes, especially since the description says "only 6 lines!" yet it's clearly
more than 6 lines.

~~~
tlack
In my humble defense, the latter half of that example (from "'test is { ...
}") is the "JSON" encoder being tested / used! But this example could
definitely use some work if its going to be featured prominently.

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grumpy8
I really don't understand the examples. Would be great if the readme could
start with some easy examples and build on them (rather than starting with a
parser).

~~~
tlack
Even worse - it's an encoder, not a parser. I really need to rethink these
docs and basically start from scratch. What programming language docs do you
really like?

