LispyScript

by amelius • 11 years ago

145 42 11 years ago

evmar• 11 years ago

Coincidentally, I've been fiddling with a rather similar project, just as a hobbyist thing. It looks like this one is much farther along, kudos! Unfortunately from the contributions graph perhaps interest in it is dying off -- the last 10% (aka the last 90%) is always the hardest part to slog through...

I've been meaning to write up the various approaches to sexpressions+macros in JS. Mine differs from the others (and perhaps is closer to LispyScript) mostly in that it's close to JS in its names and semantics (e.g. "function" defines a function and you're still required to use a "return" statement), but then it lets you write macros to e.g. define "fn" where the return is implicit.

Anyway, here's some sample code from mine (which is itself defining macros used elsewhere in the compiler): https://github.com/martine/pjs/blob/master/lib/macro.pjs

1971genocide• 11 years ago

Also check out LiveScript.

http://livescript.net/

and its awesome FP library inspired by haskell's prelude.hs

http://www.preludels.com/

I have done all forms of projects using LiveScript - robotics, simple websites, blog, cryptography, computer vision.

Its actually becoming silently fairly mature.

It helps when it doesn't generate any hype like most languages.

The community around is also very helpful !

And LiveScript is awesome with React.js or any other virtual DOM based MVC framework.

amyjess• 11 years ago

Why did they name it that?

LiveScript was Netscape's original name for JavaScript, before Sun asked them to throw in some Java branding.

rane• 11 years ago

  > Name
  >
  > LiveScript was one of the original names for JavaScript, so
  > it seemed fitting. It's an inside joke for those who know
  > JavaScript well.

lighthawk• 11 years ago

Neat!

Now look at: https://github.com/clojure/clojurescript

And try it: http://himera.herokuapp.com/index.html

zupatol2• 11 years ago

Clojurescript has to be compiled by the google closure compiler on the server side. The closure compiler doesn't work out of the box with other libraries, you need some kind of bridge.

Lispyscript has the very nice advantage of being able to run directly in the browser. Since it's translated directly to javascript, I expect it won't have problems using other javascript libraries.

swannodette4• 11 years ago

Some inaccuracies here. ClojureScript does not have to be compiled by Google Closure. That pass is an optional one for production builds. There is no "bridging" when using the Closure Compiler with non-Closure compatible code. The issue is that in production mode the Closure Compiler will make aggressive assumptions about what it can rename. So it's not about bridging it's about preventing renaming - again this is only relevant for advanced production builds.

That said for non-Web applications or applications where advanced compilation isn't that useful providing a bootstrapped ClojureScript is desirable. We've been working on that slowly for a long time now. In the coming months you'll see changes such that the ClojureScript compiler can itself be compiled into JavaScript.

lewisl9029• 11 years ago

Yes there are additional steps involved for working with the Closure compiler, but in return, you get extremely robust dead-code elimination for your own code and third party code alike.

This turns out to be invaluable in production because most projects only realistically use a handful of functions from utility libraries that tend to be 10s of KBs in size.

aidenn02• 11 years ago

TLDR: s-expression syntax for javascript, macros are written in common lisp.

TeMPOraL• 11 years ago

Macros can actually be written in Parenscript as well, AFAIR. But the language blends itself very naturally with CL code.

aidenn02• 11 years ago

parenscript macros are in straight common-lisp. They expand to parenscript, of course.

grayrest• 11 years ago

An inherent problem with Javascript is that it has no macro support, unlike other Lisp like languages.

http://sweetjs.org/

There are macro systems for Javascript, just not native ones.

JoelMcCracken2• 11 years ago

Not that you're wrong -- you're correct -- but I want to bring up that this was likely true at the time this was written. LispyScript has been around for a while.

drunkcatsdgaf• 11 years ago

First commit for lispy - march 5, 2012 First commit for sweet.js - August 1, 2012

im actually pretty shocked they are that close together.

amirouche• 11 years ago

The website is down right now. https://github.com/mozilla/sweet.js

Touche• 11 years ago

also http://sibilantjs.info/

frakturfreund• 11 years ago

Also Spock (Chicken Scheme wiki): http://wiki.call-cc.org/eggref/4/spock

Turing_Machine• 11 years ago

BiwaScheme is also pretty decent. http://www.biwascheme.org/

lispm2• 11 years ago

Doesn't look like Lisp, more like Clojure. Basically none of the functions, macros or syntax is from Lisp.

The documentation says:

http://lispyscript.com/docs/

LispyScript is not a dialect of Lisp. There is no list processing in LispyScript . LispyScript is Javascript using a Lispy syntax (a tree syntax).

That's about right. It actually uses some kind of s-expressions, but not Lisp syntax.

moron4hire2• 11 years ago

This is why I called my version of this "Loosp", because it required a very loose (so probably incorrect) definition of Lisp to call it a Lisp: https://github.com/capnmidnight/betty-boop/blob/master/pong....

gjm11• 11 years ago

Basically none of the functions, macros or syntax is from Lisp.

Sounds like it's extremely well named, then. LispyScript is to Lisp as Javascript is to Java: an entirely different language with different syntax, semantics, standard library and performance characteristics, but with just enough superficial similarity to provide plausible deniability for the name.

lispm2• 11 years ago

Well said! ;-)

jestar_jokin• 11 years ago

Doesn't it say something about JavaScript, dissatisfaction with it, and the overwhelmingly splintered ecosystem, when every comment is suggesting alternatives to the solution in the article?

I guess we chalk this one up to "neat if you're a hobbyist or solo dev with no maintenance handover, but generally commercially unviable."

elwell• 11 years ago

Wisp should also be added to this list: https://github.com/Gozala/wisp

sebastianconcpt• 11 years ago

Nice! reminded me of http://ympbyc.github.io/LittleSmallscript/

rndn• 11 years ago

There is no shortage of JavaScript-Lisps, that’s for sure!

breuleux• 11 years ago

I wouldn't say Lisp-like syntax is necessary for a macro system. It helps a bit... but all things considered, I believe pattern matching is a bigger boon to macro writing than syntax per se.

For those it may interest, I have made a language with mostly conventional syntax which supports macros: http://breuleux.github.io/earl-grey/

The macro system is modular, so you can easily write and publish macro libraries. I have written some for testing, gulp, and react. It's not super mature but it's getting there.

ktg• 11 years ago

LispScript | https://bitbucket.org/ktg/lispscript

Try LispScript | http://ktg.bitbucket.org/lispscript/lispscript.html

woadwarrior01• 11 years ago

Nice. This is reminiscent of HyLang[1], which is like this for Python.

[1] http://hylang.org/

LispyScript

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