Dale

Dale is a system (no GC) programming language that uses S-expressions for syntax and supports syntactic macros. The basic language is similar to C, with the following additional features:

• local type deduction;
• overloaded functions;
• anonymous functions;
• reference parameters;
• initialisers and destructors;
• variants;
• namespaces;
• modules;
• concepts; and
• compiler introspection.

It should be usable on most Linux/macOS/BSD systems where LLVM is able to be built. It has been tested on x86-64 (all), ARM64 (Linux, macOS) and ppc64le (Linux).

Documentation

Index
As single page

Install

Dependencies

• LLVM (3.2-14.0)
• libffi

Out-of-tree (recommended)

mkdir ../build
cd ../build
cmake ../dale
make
make tests
make install

In-tree

cmake .
make
make tests
make install

Common build problems

See Common build problems.

Container (evaluation)

The container runs the REPL by default, but includes bash (/bin/bash) for more general testing/evaluation.

docker run -it tomhrr/dale

Examples

hello-world

(import cstdio)

(def main (fn extern-c int (void)
  (printf "hello, world\n")))

> hello, world

hello-name

(import cstdio)

(def main (fn extern-c int (void)
  (def name (var auto (p (const char)) "name"))
  (printf "hello, %s\n" name)))

> hello, name

type-deduction

(import cstdio)
(import stdlib)

(def main (fn extern-c int (void)
  (let ((a \ 1)
        (b \ 2))
    (printf "%d\n" (+ a b)))))

> 3

overloading

(import cstdio)
(import cstdlib)

(def Point (struct intern ((x int) (y int))))

(def + (fn intern Point ((a Point) (b Point))
  (let ((r Point ((x (+ (@: a x) (@: b x)))
                  (y (+ (@: a y) (@: b y))))))
    (return r))))

(def main (fn extern-c int (void)
  (let ((a Point ((x 1) (y 2)))
        (b Point ((x 3) (y 4)))
        (c Point (+ a b)))
    (printf "%d %d\n" (@: c x) (@: c y)))))

> 4 6

anonymous-functions

(import cstdio)
(import stdlib)

(def main (fn extern-c int (void)
  (let ((anon-fn \ (fn int ((n int)) (* 2 n))))
    (printf "%d\n" (anon-fn 5)))))

> 10

macros

(import cstdio)
(import stdlib)
(import macros)

(using-namespace std.macros
  (def unless (macro intern (condition statement)
    (qq do
      (and (not (uq condition))
           (do (uq statement) true)))))

  (def main (fn extern-c int (void)
    (unless (= 1 2)
      (printf "1 does not equal 2\n"))
    (return 0))))

> 1 does not equal 2

typed-macros

(import cstdio)
(import macros)

(using-namespace std.macros
  (def + (macro intern ((a int) (b int) (c int))
    (qq do (+ (uq a) (+ (uq b) (uq c))))))

  (def main (fn extern-c int (void)
    (printf "%d\n" (+ 1 2 3)))))

> 6

introspection

(import introspection)
(import stdlib)

(def Point (struct intern ((x int) (y int))))

(using-namespace std.macros
  (def show-struct-details (macro intern (st)
     (let ((name  \ (@:@ st token-str))
           (count \ (struct-member-count mc st)))
       (printf "Struct: %s\n"       name)
       (printf "Member count: %d\n" count)
       (let ((i \ 0))
         (for true (< i count) (incv i)
           (printf "Member %d: %s\n" (+ i 1) (struct-member-name mc st i))))
       (nullptr DNode))))

  (def main (fn extern-c int (void)
    (show-struct-details Point)
    0)))

> Struct: Point
> Member count: 2
> Member 1: x
> Member 2: y

error-reporting

(import introspection)
(import stdlib)

(using-namespace std.macros
  (def assert-is-struct (macro intern (st)
    (let ((count \ (struct-member-count mc st)))
      (and (= -1 count)
           (do (report-error mc st "struct type does not exist")
               true))
      (return (nullptr DNode)))))

  (def main (fn extern-c int (void)
    (assert-is-struct Point)
    0)))

> ./error-reporting.dt:13:23: error: struct type does not exist (see macro at 13:5)
> ./error-reporting.dt:13:5: error: macro expansion error (see previous)

derivations

(import derivations)

(def Point (struct intern ((x int) (y int))))

(std.concepts.implement Struct Point)
(std.concepts.instantiate relations Point)

(def main (fn extern-c int (void)
  (let ((p1 Point ((x 1) (y 2)))
        (p2 Point ((x 3) (y 4))))
    (and (!= p1 p2)
         (do (printf "p1 and p2 are not equal\n") true))
    (and (<= p1 p2)
         (do (printf "p1 is less than or equal to p2\n") true))
    (and (> p2 p1)
         (do (printf "p2 is more than p1\n") true))
    0)))

> p1 and p2 are not equal
> p1 is less than or equal to p2
> p2 is more than p1

containers

(import vector)
(import array)
(import algorithms)
(import cstdio)

(using-namespace std.concepts
  (instantiate Vector int)
  (instantiate Array int 10)
  (instantiate copy (Iterator (Vector int))
                    (Iterator (Array int 10))))

(def main (fn extern-c int (void)
  (let ((vec (Vector int))
        (arr (Array int 10))
        (i int))
    (for (setv i 0) (< i 10) (incv i)
      (push-back vec i))
    (copy (begin vec) (end vec) (begin arr))
    (let ((b \ (begin arr))
          (e \ (end arr)))
      (for true (!= b e) (setv b (successor b))
        (printf "%d " (@ (source b)))))
    (printf "\n")
    0)))

> 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 

variants

(import variant)
(import cstdio)

(def-variant Number ((Int    ((a int)))
                     (Float  ((a float)))))

(def main (fn extern-c int (void)
  (let ((ni Number (Int 1))
        (nf Number (Float 2.0))
        (na (array-of 2 Number) (array ni nf)))
    (for (i \ 0) (< i 2) (incv i)
      (let ((nc Number (@$ na i)))
        (case nc
          (Int    (printf "Number is int (%d)\n"    (@:@ nc a)))
          (Float  (printf "Number is float (%f)\n"  (@:@ nc a)))))))
  0))

> Number is int (1)
> Number is float (2.000000)

Bugs/problems/suggestions

Please report to the GitHub issue tracker.

Discussion

The mailing list address is [email protected]. See also https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/dale-lang.

Licence

See LICENCE.