This idea is doable.
I had a big problem teaching Perl to a VC++ geek because he wouldn't
accept that strings are scalar values.
Little foreign to me, too. But I'll leave it to the interpreter to take care of the memory management.
The variable isn't attached to
a type when it's created (like C++); it simply reflects whatever kind of
data is in its value. If you set it to a string, it's a string. If you
then set it to a boolean, it's a boolean.
Like a JavaScript var.
> Ah, K, got it. But It would be like associating entire chunks of code with a
> single variable (the name), right? So compared to say, C++ data structures,
> the shelves are the same, the cabinet's just bigger, qar'a'?
Something like that, yeah.
Only the most sadistic C++ programs pass procedures around as data (it is
possible; don't ask me how, though). In functional languages, it's fairly
common. Mostly because there's really no way to distinguish--procedures
get names just like everything else, so they must be valid values. In
some OO languages (dunno about MSVC++), it's possible to have a method and
an instance (or even class) variable named "count", and the compiler
figures out which one you mean from context--you can't call an int, and
you can't increment a method. None of that in var'aq; if you've got
something named count, it's either one or the other, but not both at the
same time.
Functional languages in general (I'm sure there are exceptions) also tend
to favor recursive algorithms. Sure, you can usually do the other stuff
too, but the prevalence of the stack really makes recursion attractive.
> > Code is processed as it's entered.
>
> So this is an interpreted language?
> So will compiled code be possible (in the future)?
Most functional languages are "interpreted", in the sense that they don't
usually produce external independent executable binary code.
That's not the only thing "compiled" means, but it's what you meant.
Or something like Java bytecode.
The interactive environment is more like the old-style BASICs, except without
the pesky line numbers and crap like that.
That partial-compile is also what goes on with Java and Perl, although the
breaks between the phases are at slightly different places.
> So this is not an OO language? Like (again, forgive the analogy) VB?
Variables are(n't) classed in var'aq--data is.
K, got it.
If the choices are only "OO or not-OO", then yes, it's in the same boat as
VB. But it's really nothing like it. :)
I got that already }}: )
I used the VB example only as an example of a non-OO language. I would not insult your creation with a comparison beyond that.}}: )
The big giant thing you missed: ".pl" means you're dealing with a Perl
program. So, you need Perl to actually run it.
big giant lightbulb: So one need not learn Perl to learn varaq. Perl is just the language used to write the interpreter. It could also be written in Java, or Pascal, or VC++. }}: )
Right?
Ideas, Ideas, Ideas...
--ngabwI'
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