benchristel

Sketch of an ideal application programming language

The language described below

• leverages the strengths of procedural, functional, and OO programming styles
• distinguishes cleanly between mutable and immutable datatypes and variables
• does not have null or anything like it
• is typesafe, though some type checking has to be performed at runtime

benchristel

define({
  displayText() {
    return getTestResults()
  },
  
  getTestResults() {
    return Object.keys(window)
      .filter(name => startsWith('test ', name))
      .map(title => ({title, failure: getTestFailure(title)}))
      .filter(result => result.failure)

benchristel

define({
  *run() {
    yield log('Press any key to generate a name.')
    yield function* loop() {
      yield waitForChar()
      yield log(generateName())
      yield retry(loop())
    }
  },

benchristel

/**
 * This is a (not-yet-functional) sketch of a game that uses the Verse UI framework.
 * It is intended to show how Verse might be used for a moderately complex program.
 * The core logic of the game is not implemented here, since it is irrelevant for
 * illustrating the use of Verse.
 *
 * The rules of Pico, Fermi, Bagel can be found here:
 * http://www.mathfairy.com/wp/kids/pico-fermi-bagels/
 */

benchristel

// test-driven with Ji (http://benchristel.github.io/ji/)

// PRODUCTION CODE


function head(iterable) {
  for (let item of iterable) {
  	return item
  }
}

benchristel

Data vs. Information

Computers do two types of data transformation

commands: data -> data (state change)

• limited set of interactions
• need to validate data
• worth optimizing UX
• same type of interactions repeatedly (e.g. data entry) -> streamlined UI, workflows, wizards...

benchristel

/**
 * Demo of a coroutine-based framework, in which the application code repeatedly
 * yields control to its environment (e.g. to receive input or wait for a period of time).
 * This allows JavaScript programs to be written in a synchronous style.
 */

// Test-driven with Ji (benchristel.github.io/ji)

function Program(code) {
  var eventGenerator = null

benchristel

{
  "ambientLight": 0.501,
  "backgroundColor": "#000000",
  "bloom": 0.0962,
  "brightness": 0.5,
  "burnIn": 0.0282,
  "chromaColor": 1,
  "contrast": 0.85,
  "customCommand": "",
  "flickering": 0.302,

benchristel

function startWorkerWithCode(code) {
  return new Worker(URL.createObjectURL(new Blob([code])))
}

function evalAsync(code, funcName, callback) {
  var worker = startWorkerWithCode(code + ';self.postMessage(' + funcName + '());')
  
  var timeout = setTimeout(function() {
    worker.terminate()
    callback('timeout')

benchristel

// "class"-like method container
// allows JSON serialization for persistence
// since state properties can be persisted and method
// properties are treated as immutable.

type('KeyTracker', {
  lastKey: null,

  receive: function(event) {