SS (SimpleScript)

Just a simple programming language / experiment to build a simpler and less quirky JavaScript.

SimpleScript is a Strongly & Statically typed, Application programming language inspired by JavaScript/TypeScript, SML and Go, to be a simple and clean language that can target multiple execution methods from AOT compilation for binary executables to popular VM platforms (like JVM / BEAM / WASM) to interpretation and JIT compilation techniques.

Language design goals

• Read the language's specification and design goals in here
• See the Language Design Guidelines here
• See the syntatic grammar definition in BNF

Core tenets

1. Simple
2. Simple to Understand --> Intuitive code with no assumptions or quirkiness (WYSIWYG)
3. Simple to Write --> Intuitive semantics without requiring any hackery (WYSIWYG)

Specific language goals and features

• Simple to read and understand by using explicit constructs to avoid surprises caused by implicit language constructs
• Simple to write with easy and intuitive constructs and syntax
• Strongly & Statically typed language with type inference and optional type annotations
• High level language so that you don't have to deal with low level constructs of underlying hardware and execution models
• Not too abstract, e.g. can support abstract ideas like meta programming, but not too extreme as it may reduce readability and in extension, maintainability
• No stupid module issues like python

Project Goals and Milestones

• Reference implementation of the language
  • Intepreter in Rust
  • Byte Code stack based Virtual Machine in Rust
  • A compiler frontend for LLVM
  • Perhaps a Graal/Wasm/JVM version to target a popular bytecode virtual machine
  • Transpilation to JavaScript to run in browsers
• Others
  • Language server
  • VS code and vim extensions

Project Status

Research.. Research.. and more Research..
Currently:

• Doing lots of research on programming languages
  • Learning more about PLT (Programming Language Theory)
  • Studying other languages
  • Working on the type system with type inference
• Working on the language spec whilst learning and building upon the research
  • Module system design
  • Researching and experimenting with how to embed Asynchronous programming / Concurrency / Parallel computing into the language semantics itself.
• Working on different implementations
  1. An interpreter in Rust for a modified lox language, inspired by this book and rlox
     • The interpreter is not (at least, not yet) for SS, it is for a modified version of of the lox language, which I am building to learn more about building interpreters.
     • Currently works with basic static type checking using type inference
  2. A bytecode virtual machine written in rust
     • Just like the interpreter, this is not the final version of SS, mainly a modified version of the lox language too, used to experiment with VM design
  3. A Simply Typed Lambda Calculus to experiment with lambda calculus and type inference.

Project layout & Commit style

This mono repo contains the following sub repos and their commit prefixes:

• ri
  • Interpreter written in Rust
  • Commits prefixed with ri: or [rust-i]
• rvm
  • Bytecode virtual machine written in Rust
  • Commits prefixed with rvm: or [rvm]
• vsce
  • Visual Studio Code Extension
  • Will include both the extension and the language server in the future
  • Commits prefixed with vsce:
• Simply Typed Lambda Calculus
  • Simply Typed Lambda Calculus implemented in JavaScript, with a focus on type inference
  • Commits prefixed with stlc: or [stlc]

Author, Credits, License, Contributing

Author

• JJ

Credits

I had lots of help referencing other similar projects, credits are listed in the README of individual subrepos.

License

MIT

Contributing

Hit me up if you wanna!