On: Modal is a matrioshka language based on pattern-ma...

[_akhe]

What is this for? What's something you make with it (or do you make stuff with it?)

[wryl → _akhe]

It's a general purpose programming language who's main paradigm is rule-based pattern matching.

A sample.

  <> (-- ?x) ()
  -- (Now we can add comments to what we are doing.)
  -- (Let's add some alternative syntax for defining rules.)
  <> (?x -> ?y) (<> ?x ?y)

  -- (Let's add some boolean operators, 'and' and 'or'.)
  ((true)  && (true))  -> true
  ((true)  && (false)) -> false
  ((false) && (true))  -> false
  ((false) && (false)) -> false

  ((true)  || (true))  -> true
  ((true)  || (false)) -> true
  ((false) || (true))  -> true
  ((false) || (false)) -> false

  -- (Some alternative syntax.)
  (?x and ?y) -> (?x && ?y)
  (?x or ?y)  -> (?x || ?y)

  -- (Let's build an 'if' statement.)
  (quote ?x)    -> (quote ?x)
  (unwrap (?x)) -> (unwrap ?x)
  (unwrap ?x)   -> ?x
  (
    if ?c
      ?t
    else
      ?f
  ) -> (
    if/else ?c
      quote ?t
      quote ?f
  )
  (
    if/else (true)
      quote ?t
      quote ?f
  ) -> (
    unwrap ?t
  )
  (
    if/else (false)
      quote ?t
      quote ?f
  ) -> (
    unwrap ?f
  )

  -- (All together.)
  if ((true) and ((false) or (true))) (
    Hooray!
  ) else (
    Boo!
  )

[_akhe → wryl]

What's it for though? Is it optimized for building anything specific?

[wryl → _akhe]

Not particularly, no. Nothing specific. The semantics of the language lend themselves well to an implementation in hardware. I had a sketch in VHDL in the time I spent developing this.

This means that the above sample is effectively your "assembly language". There was no gap between your programs and the hardware they ran on.

Modal can be used to write small utilities, games, programming language implementations, type systems.. the list goes on. It's a fully general meta-language that can be used for general purpose programming.

[_akhe → wryl]

Oh I see, very cool. Would be interesting to see basic graphics programming using it - the aesthetics of the page and how it's presented are very intriguing, but a little esoteric/mysterious (perhaps intentionally so).

[wryl → _akhe]

Devine and a few others are actually working that out! We're collaborating in the Concatenative Languages Discord server on how to use, extend and improve the language.

[_akhe → wryl]

Awesome, looking forward to it.

Aesthetically and everything else - I would love to see a Conway's Game of Life or maybe a Terminal-based platformer RPG, or a digital art installation that takes over my computer like a virus - something to that effect in this language.

The whole picture: Everything you've said, the way your site presents it, the way you talk, and a video of a very impressive low-bit program.

I think it would trend!

[postepowanieadm → wryl]

That's really nice!

[hnarayanan → _akhe]

Here is a lecture explaining one specific use of this, writing a symbolic differentiator: https://youtu.be/_fXQ1SwKjDg

[cess11 → _akhe]

Might want to take a look at Uxn &c. to get a feel for the kind of technology Devine and friends are developing.

https://100r.co/site/uxn.html