Katahdin - A language where syntax and semantics are mutable at runtime

http://www.chrisseaton.com/katahdin/

by _b8r0 • 16 years ago

31 18 16 years ago

Languages such as OCaml already have the ability to do this at compile time. What's the benefit to allowing this at runtime? (Which effectively restricts this language to being interpreted, and severely limits the use of external tools such as code refactorers and smart editors...)

jpr• 16 years ago

Common Lisp does this and it's not restricted to being interpreted, you just have to include compiler, linker etc. as part of the language runtime.

koenigdavidmj• 16 years ago

So if I throw a bunch of Python code into a bunch of C strings and have main() set up a Python interpreter to eval those strings, I have compiled a Python program?

That seems like quite a copout.

p_nathan3• 16 years ago

I am strongly reminded of Perl 6 and Lisp.

I guess my question is, "what does Katahdin provide that Perl 6 doesn't" (leaving aside the .NET integration)?

jrockway2• 16 years ago

I guess my question is, "what does Katahdin provide that Perl 6 doesn't"

The author with his degree?

p_nathan3• 16 years ago

Well, yes. :-) But I'm considering the language from me, a user.

billmcneale• 16 years ago

> I guess my question is, "what does Katahdin provide that Perl 6 doesn't"

A language that doesn't look like line noise?

p_nathan3• 16 years ago

I like Perl. :P

ngd• 16 years ago

This was a Computer Science dissertation (by a good friend of mine). It scratched an itch, furthered someones education and checked the box of a required component of a degree course. I don't think it was looking to change the world. I don't think anyone is writing apps in Kat.

mahmud2• 16 years ago

Why did he go into military service?

I don't mean to pry, but was he forced/drafted, or just a personal choice? Seems unfortunate to me.

cgseaton• 16 years ago

It's a huge privilege to command Her Majesty's soldiers, and something that one can only do when young, so I went for it. Also, the leadership training and maturity that you gain from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst are second to none in the world.

kylec• 16 years ago

How was the name chosen? As someone from Maine I expected the author to be local and was surprised to see he was from the UK.

mdaniel• 16 years ago

I hope my master's project is something interesting like this.

However, my first thought upon reading the title of the link was about the comments that were going to appear here: either "lisp already does this" or "this will never be accepted as a mainstream language because it's too chaotic to the project."

Section 4.2.3 answered the question I was searching for: what happens in this hybrid model when an "interior" language fails to parse? It's all fun and games to strap on a new mini langage to your source file, but it's less fun and games when you misplace a paren. I wondered if the entire block threw a parse exception or if the whole file failed to load. It appears based on the skim-read that it's the later.

p.s. why is "270 version control commits" an achievement?

gchpaco• 16 years ago

Means he used version control. (should be ordinary and expected but is quite rare for grad student code, in my experience)

zokier• 16 years ago

Makes me wonder how it affects performance when done at runtime

drdo• 16 years ago

How is this better than macros and read-macros?

Katahdin - A language where syntax and semantics are mutable at runtime

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