sugarlisp

WORK IN PROGRESS - NOT TO BE USED IN PRODUCTION

SugarLisp supports pluggable language "dialects" in the form of npm modules which extend both the syntax, as well as the code generated by, a basic lispy core.

There are currently three "language" dialects and several smaller "mixin" dialects.

Language Dialects

SugarLisp "language dialects" include:

• SugarLisp Core is a minimal lisp that transpiles to javascript.

SugarLisp Core is designed as the AST "assembly language" that all SugarLisp dialects build upon. It started from (and remains somewhat compatible with) LispyScript

SugarLisp Core files use the extension ".score".

• SugarLisp Plus is a lisp/javascript hybrid.

SugarLisp Plus extends "core" with syntax borrowed from javascript e.g. "[]" for arrays, "{}" for code blocks and JSON style object literals, "=>" for infix arrow functions, etc. Whereas SugarLisp Core is meant as a building block, SugarLisp Plus is meant as a useable lisp that's easy for programmers coming to lisp from a javascript background.

SugarLisp Plus files use the extension ".slisp".

• SugarScript is a lisp that looks like javascript.

SugarScript uses traditional function call style ("fn(x)" not "(fn x)") and infix operators ("(x + y)" not "(+ x y)"). It's goal is to appeal to javascript programmers by being as close to javascript as possible while retaining the language extensibility afforded by lisp macros.

While SugarScript is young, inspiration comes from e.g. CGOL, Dylan, Rebol, Racket and Sweet.js.

SugarScript files use the extension ".sugar".

Mixin Dialects

Current SugarLisp "mixin dialects" (in various states of completion) include:

• match - adds pattern matching syntax based on Dave Herman's pattern-match library
• html - adds support for inline html (compare to e.g. Facebook React JSX)
• css - adds support for inline css (compare to e.g. Less and Sass)
• async - paper over differences in callback, promise, generator based asyncronous code
• csp - go style concurrency based upon ubulonton's js-csp library

Installation

npm install sugarlisp -g

Running the REPL

sugar

Compiling a File

Compile a sugarlisp file to a .js file ("ext" is e.g. ".sugar", ".slisp", or ".score"):

sugar filename.ext

You can also have your files compiled automatically by running (from your project directory):

sugar --watch

See sugar --help for more options.

Desugaring a File

To see your program desugared to it's SugarLisp Core "assembly language" version do:

sugar --to core filename.ext filename.score

Examples

Each of the dialect modules have examples in their respective "examples" directories.

If you're new to sugarlisp check out the examples (many with a big thanks to LispyScript) under sugarlisp/node_modules/sugarlisp-plus/examples

Or if you're more a javacript kind of person you might prefer to start with the examples at sugarlisp/node_modules/sugarlisp-sugarscript/examples