# OTPCL
## What is it?
Open Telecom Platform Command Language, a.k.a. Tcl-flavored Erlang.
Or maybe it's Erlang-flavored Tcl?
## How do I use it?
For now, clone this repo, and make sure you have rebar3 installed.
Then, from the repo's root:
```
$ rebar3 compile
[ ... bunch of rebar3 output that hopefully looks successful ... ]
$ bin/otpcl
OTPCL Shell (WIP!)
otpcl> print "Hello, world!~n"
Hello, world!
ok
```
You can also use it from an existing project in some other BEAM-based
language (note that said language will need to be able to see OTPCL's
compiled libs; this happens automatically if you're doing things with
Hex like described below, but otherwise, you'll have to point to it
with the ERL_LIBS variable).
For example, in Erlang (w/ rebar3):
```
$ grep otpcl rebar.config
{deps, [{otpcl, "0.2.0"}]}.
$ rebar3 shell
Eshell V10.0 (abort with ^G)
1> otpcl:eval("import io; format {Hello, world!~n}").
Hello, world!
[ ... bunch of output because we just imported everything from
Erlang's io module and otpcl:eval returns the full
interpreter state when it's done executing stuff ... ]
```
And again, in Elixir (w/ Mix):
```
$ grep otpcl mix.exs
{:otpcl, "~> 0.2.0"}
$ iex -S mix
Interactive Elixir (1.7.3) - press Ctrl+C to exit (type h() ENTER for help)
iex(1)> :otpcl.eval("import Elixir.IO; puts {Hello, world!}")
Hello, world!
[ ... bunch of output because we just imported everything from
Elixir's IO module and :otpcl.eval returns the full
interpreter state when it's done executing stuff ... ]
```
## What (else) can it do?
Well, as you might've guessed from above, it can parse a Tcl-like
language:
```erlang
2> otpcl:parse("foo {bar $baz {bam [bat $baf]} bal} $bad $bak$bae [bah $bay]").
{ok,{parsed,program,
[{parsed,command,
[{parsed,unquoted,
[{102,{nofile,0,0}},{111,{nofile,0,1}},{111,{nofile,0,2}}]},
{parsed,braced,
[{98,{nofile,0,5}},
{97,{nofile,0,6}},
{114,{nofile,0,7}},
{32,{nofile,0,8}},
{36,{nofile,0,9}},
{98,{nofile,0,10}},
{97,{nofile,0,11}},
{122,{nofile,0,12}},
{32,{nofile,0,13}},
{123,{nofile,0,14}},
{98,{nofile,0,...}},
{97,{nofile,...}},
{109,{...}},
{32,...},
{...}|...]},
{parsed,var_unquoted,
[{98,{nofile,0,37}},{97,{nofile,0,38}},{100,{nofile,0,39}}]},
{parsed,var_unquoted,
[{98,{nofile,0,42}},
{97,{nofile,0,43}},
{107,{nofile,0,44}},
{36,{nofile,0,45}},
{98,{nofile,0,46}},
{97,{nofile,0,47}},
{101,{nofile,0,48}}]},
{parsed,funcall,
[{parsed,unquoted,
[{98,{nofile,0,51}},
{97,{nofile,0,52}},
{104,{nofile,0,53}}]},
{parsed,var_unquoted,
[{98,{nofile,0,56}},
{97,{nofile,0,57}},
{121,{nofile,0,...}}]}]}]}]},
[]}
```
And it can interpret that language, too:
```erlang
3> otpcl:eval("set foo 1; set bar 2; set baz 3").
{3,
{#{decr => fun otpcl_stdlib:decr/2,
'if' => fun otpcl_stdlib:if/2,
incr => fun otpcl_stdlib:incr/2,
print => fun otpcl_stdlib:print/2,
set => fun otpcl_stdlib:set/2,
unless => fun otpcl_stdlib:unless/2},
#{'RETVAL' => 3,bar => 2,baz => 3,foo => 1}}}
```
And as demonstrated above, you can do things from the OTPCL shell/REPL
(albeit with very poor error handling at the moment, alas):
```
otpcl> import math
ok
otpcl> exp 4
54.598150033144236
otpcl> exp foo
error: badarg
Stacktrace:
math:exp/[foo]
otpcl_stdmeta:'-import/2-fun-1-'/4
file: "/home/ryno/Projects/otpcl/src/otpcl_stdmeta.erl"
line: 33
otpcl_eval:interpret/2
file: "/home/ryno/Projects/otpcl/src/otpcl_eval.erl"
line: 87
otpcl_shell:eval/2
file: "/home/ryno/Projects/otpcl/src/otpcl_shell.erl"
line: 46
```
We can define new Erlang functions and include them as functions for
our interpreter, both from the Erlang side:
```erlang
4> Sum = fun (Nums, State) -> {lists:sum(Nums), State} end.
#Fun<erl_eval.12.127694169>
5> {ok, State} = otpcl_meta:cmd([sum, Sum], otpcl_env:default_state()).
[ ... interpreter state output ... ]
6> {RetVal, NewState} = otpcl:eval("sum 1 2 3 4 5", State).
[ ... interpreter state output ... ]
7> RetVal.
15
```
And of course, no programming language would be complete if we can't
define functions in that language:
```
otpcl> cmd howdy {$pardner} {
...> return <howdy $pardner>
...> }
ok
otpcl> howdy buckaroo
{howdy,buckaroo}
otpcl> cmd multi-test {a} {
...> return "It's an 'a'!"
...> } {1} {
...> return "It's a 1!"
...> } {$else} {
...> return "It's something else..."
...> }
ok
otpcl> multi-test a
<<"It's an 'a'!">>
otpcl> multi-test 1
<<"It's a 1!">>
otpcl> multi-test asdf
<<"It's something else...">>
```
Or, as demonstrated above, you can even import them, whether as whole
modules:
```
otpcl> import random; uniform 8675309
3848234
```
Or as individual functions:
```
otpcl> import string (split uppercase)
ok
otpcl> split [uppercase "foo,bar,baz"] ","
[<<"FOO">>,<<"BAR,BAZ">>]
```
Alternately, if you want to avoid namespace clashes:
```
otpcl> use string
ok
otpcl> string split [string uppercase "foo,bar,baz"] ","
[<<"FOO">>,<<"BAR,BAZ">>]
```
There's still a lot of work to be done, but it ain't bad for my
first-ever programming language, I'd say (and with a hand-written
parser, to boot!).
## What *should* it do?
* Tokenizer (100%)
* Parser (100%) (there are probably bugs, but it's otherwise complete)
* Interpreter (100%) (there are probably bugs, but it's otherwise complete)
* Standard library / built-in functions (50%)
* Compiler (0%)
* REPL/shell (75%) (mostly functional, and does a decent job of error
reporting now, but plenty of room for polish)
* Tests (no idea what the test coverage is right now, but hey, at
least I wrote (some) tests this time!)
* Docs (80%) (making it a point to document new functions as I go)
* Install procedure that's actually sane (or for that matter exists at
all)
## What's the actual syntax?
Like with Tcl, an OTPCL program is a sequence of
vertical-whitespace-delimited commands (semicolons counting as
"vertical whitespace" in this context), each of which is a sequence of
horizontal-whitespace-delimited words (note: not all forms of
horizontal/vertical whitespace are currently recognized as such by the
parser, whereas a backslash-escaped newline *is* recognized as such).
A word may be any of the following:
* An atom (either `unquoted` or `'Single Quoted'`)
* An integer (`123` or `-123`)
* A float (`123.456` or `-123.456`)
* A binary string (either `"double quoted"` or `{curly braced}`)
* A charlist string (backquoted)
* A list (`(word-elements surrounded by parentheses)`)
* A tuple (`<word-elements surrounded by angle brackets>`)
* A variable substitution (either `$unquoted` or `${braced}`)
* A function call substitution (`[command inside square brackets]`)
There's also the concept of "pipe commands" - that is, if a word starts with a
pipe, OTPCL will treat it like a newline/semicolon and then treat it as a
command name. The core pipe operator (`|`) behaves similarly to the pipe
operator in Elixir (`|>`); it'll feed the result of the previous command into
the first argument slot for the next command.
### Crash Course
```tcl
this is a command # this is a comment
this is one command; this is another command
this command (accepts a list)
this command <accepts a tuple>
this command "accepts a binary string"
this command {also accepts a binary string}
this command `accepts an Erlang-style charlist string`
this command 'Accepts an atom that has spaces in it'
this command will use a $variable ${another variable} and a [function call]
this command \
continues on the next line \
and takes a (list that also \
continues onto another line)
C'est | une | pipe # Take that, Magritte!
```
## What's the license?
OpenBSD-style ISC License:
> Copyright (c) 2018, 2019 Ryan S. Northrup <northrup@yellowapple.us>
> Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for
> any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the
> above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all
> copies.
> THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL
> WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED
> WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
> AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
> DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA
> OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER
> TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR
> PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
