Eek - 10 months later
I started writing the Eek specification 10 months ago and my
last summary was written in April '04, so I thought it would be nice to bring it up to date. The Eek specification is not done yet (5 pages left), but I don't expect any major changes.
Eek is a strongly-typed, imperative OO-language with many similarities to Java, but enough details to make creating a new language worthwhile.
Semantics
- everything is really an object, even numbers
- there are no static/class members, every member has an object
- support for singletons (as static replacement)
- there are no packages/namespaces, only classes that can be nested
- there are two kinds of references: those that allow null and those that forbid it
- there is no separation between properties and fields like in C# or Java, both are the same
- methods and properties can have Eiffel-like constraints
- built-in support for a XML-compatible data model called EXML, including literals for nodes and qualified names
- additional operators to allow EXML processing like the upcoming ECMAScript4XML (E4X) standard
- more logical control structures: any block can be prefixed by 'if', 'do', 'while' and 'for', and postfixed by 'else', 'until', 'catch' and 'finally'. You can combine a postfix and a prefix
- String characters are int
- no number types <32 bits, no unsigned numbers
- no (native) arrays
- a 'any' type that is a Object reference, but every method invocation or property access is checked at runtime. It thus behaves like a reference in a weakly typed language
- factory constructors that look like a regular constructor but act like a factory method
- virtual constructors that can be overridden
- support for tuples as return types and in assignments
- Developer has a choice between checked exceptions, like Java's, and unchecked like C#
- buzzwords: operator overloading, multi-methods, varargs, delegates, generics, exceptions, enum, foreach (but no C for), co-routines (with yield), closures, events
Syntax- Java-like operators and keywords
- Python-like indentation for blocks (but without the colon) and statement-separation rules (no semicolons)
- no 'new' keyword, instantiation looks like C++ auto-allocation
- no parenthesis for control statements
Extendability
Designed to make it easy to extend the language with new features. Possible
extensions include a sister language that feels like a dynamic scripting language, based on the 'any' type.
written at 21:37. (0 Comments, Permalink)
