"Move" — a simpler programming language as a subset of JavaScript

by tonyskn • 15 years ago

38 22 15 years ago

Charuru• 15 years ago

What about coffeescript.

dpritchett• 15 years ago

CoffeeScript benefits from the work done on other JS dialects. Last year jashkenas rolled in "features and optimizations" from Coco which is itself a dialect of CoffeeScript [1].

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2037996

davidk0101• 15 years ago

This is really cool. I really like his take on lambda being ^.

rdouble• 15 years ago

It's lifted from C Blocks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blocks_(C_language_extension)

jamesrom• 15 years ago

Step 1) Add some shortcuts to JavaScript

Step 2) Make it marginally more expressive

Step 3) ???

Step 4) Profit

tilltheis• 15 years ago

Maybe Rasmus wants to make writing Kod.app plugins easier?

tomstuart• 15 years ago

  Move is a subset of JavaScript [...] The following three examples are all valid Move code while the last one is also valid JavaScript code

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

samwillis• 15 years ago

I think it is more accurately described as a superset of javascript, Just as C++ is(nt) a superset of C.

mambodog• 15 years ago

Or as Objective-C is a superset of C.

paradoja• 15 years ago

It is neither. It is another language which can be interpreted from JS through a library.

The difference in the semantics of «==» is an example. Also, it does not have things that JS has, and has other things JS doesn't.

rgbrgb• 15 years ago

It says subset in the title and superset in the description.

olalonde• 15 years ago

Now the question is, does it meet HN's notability requirements?

Ezku• 15 years ago

A subset? Doesn't seem so. Also doesn't seem to have anything on CoffeeScript.

Andi• 15 years ago

Functions return the result of the last expression -> Better use CoffeeScript - it's > 1.0 - it will save you even more work.

igorw• 15 years ago

> In JavaScript, there are two different ways to define a function: using the function expression and the function declaration statement, the latter having subtle restrictions. Move only has function expressions.

Except using named functions will also make your stack traces useful. Because function names tell you more than line numbers.

Maro• 15 years ago

I don't think Javascript being too complicated is a real world problem.

KeithMajhor• 15 years ago

Javascript isn't complicated but it does have some ugly boiler-plate. I would love to see C# style lambda's in Javascript.

C# style: var item_names = $( "li.menu_item span" ).map( x => x.innerHTML )

JS style: var item_names = $( "li.menu_item span" ).map( function( x ) { return x.innerHTML } )

Skofoo• 15 years ago

CoffeeScript has C#-esque lambdas.

item_names = $("li.menu_item span").map (x) -> x.innerHTML

lhorie• 15 years ago

javascript 1.8:

$("li.menu_item span").map(function(x) x.innerHTML)

for that particular exaple, you could also steal pluck() from Prototype.js:

$("li.menu_item span").pluck("innerHTML")

andolanra• 15 years ago

    Variables need not be explicitly declared. Move will
    declare a newfound variable in the scope which it first
    was used.

How does this interact with lexical scope? For example, how would the go-to counter example (in JavaScript below) be expressed in Move?

    function makeCounter() {
        var x = 0;
        return function() {
            return x++;
        };
    }

Does Move not require declarations because it has implicit declarations whenever there's a usage of any variable? (In which case the above example couldn't be expressed without some kind of circumlocution—again, like in Python.) Or are variables always looked up in the outermost scope, so you can't have a variable whose name is shared by another variable in an enclosing scope?

    No commas required to terminate expressions. Move will
    determine when a comma is needed so you don't have to
    (and the code gets more readable).

Given that all the code has commas in the same places as in JavaScript, I'm going to assume s/comma/semicolon, and s/expression/statement, to be pedantic.

robwgibbons• 15 years ago

JavaScript isn't simple enough already? I think libraries are the way to make syntactic sugar, not trying to replace the language itself.

"Move" — a simpler programming language as a subset of JavaScript

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