README.markdown

神.clj | Shen for Clojure

http://shenlanguage.org/

Shen is a portable functional programming language by Mark Tarver that offers

• pattern matching,
• λ calculus consistency,
• macros,
• optional lazy evaluation,
• static type checking,
• an integrated fully functional Prolog,
• and an inbuilt compiler-compiler.

This Clojure Port

[shen.clj "0.1.0"]

Is a work in progress - the Shen test suite is now passing.

Uses Leiningen to build. The script build is used for full, repeatable builds.

To run the REPL:

lein trampoline run

# If shen.clj already exists, for readline support:
lein repl

# java:
java -cp lib/clojure-1.4.0-beta4.jar:shen.clj-0.1.0.jar shen

# standalone jar:
java -jar shen.clj-0.1.0-standalone.jar


Shen 2010, copyright (C) 2010 Mark Tarver
www.lambdassociates.org, version 3.1
running under Clojure, implementation: Clojure 1.4.0-beta4 [jvm 1.8.0-ea]
port 0.1.0 ported by Håkan Råberg


(0-) (define super
       [Value Succ End] Action Combine Zero ->
         (if (End Value)
             Zero
             (Combine (Action Value)
                      (super [(Succ Value) Succ End]
                             Action Combine Zero))))
super

(1-) (define for
       Stream Action -> (super Stream Action do 0))
for

(2-) (define filter
       Stream Condition ->
         (super Stream
                (/. Val (if (Condition Val) [Val] []))
                append
                []))
filter

(3-) (for [0 (+ 1) (= 10)] print)
01234567890

(4-) (filter [0 (+ 1) (= 100)]
             (/. X (integer? (/ X 3))))
[0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39 42 45 48 51 54 57 60... etc]

The Shen Test Suite

The Shen test suite is now running, slowly but surely:

[... loads of output ...]
passed ... 146
failed ...0
pass rate ...100%

ok
0

run time: 19.022 secs
loaded

The suite can be run via:

yes | lein trampoline run -m shen.test

The benchmarks can be run via:

JAVA_OPTS="-Xss4m" lein run -m shen.benchmarks

• Performance is not a goal for 0.1.0, but some tuning has been made to ease development.

神, define, prolog? and defprolog macros

Instead of using Shen's reader, you can embed Shen directly in Clojure using these macros. For simplicity, all Shen code lives and is evaluated in the shen namespace for now (this will likely change).

; shen.test/shenlanguage.org
(define for
  Stream Action -> (super Stream Action do 0))

; shen.test/printer
(神
 (cons 1 2))
"[1 | 2]"

(神
 (@p 1 2))
"(@p 1 2)"

; shen.test/partials
(神
 ((λ X Y (+ X Y)) 2))
fn?

As can be seen λ stands in for /. in Shen to avoid Clojure reader macros. @p, @s and @v are converted from Clojure deref to their Shen symbols. Characters, like \;, will also be converted to symbols.

See shen.test for more examples.

Marginalia

http://ghettojedi.org/shen.clj/

Roadmap

This port, while aiming to conform closely (and hopefully fully) to the Shen specification, has its primary goal to enable Shen's power in real world Clojure code.

• Shen / Clojure interop:
  • Shen packages as namespaces?
  • Hiding Shen internal names.
  • Bringing smaller parts of Shen goodness back into Clojure: predicate dispatch, pattern matching, prolog. Maybe even the type system.
  • Ensuring Shen can call Clojure/Java properly.
• Future / Questions
  • More TCO than implicit recur for KLambda?
  • Making Shen as lazy as its host?
  • Revisit using STM (refs/atoms) instead of intern for set/value?
  • Existing Shen libraries and portability?
  • ClojureScript.
  • overwrite.clj - rewriting more parts of Shen into Clojure if interop or performance requires it.
• Shen in 15 minutes as smoke test for the REPL

The other port, Shen to Clojure

http://code.google.com/p/shen-to-clojure/

License

http://shenlanguage.org/license.html

Shen, Copyright © 2010-2012 Mark Tarver

shen.clj, Copyright © 2012 Håkan Råberg