updated January 7, 2022
https://cult.honeypot.io/reads/developer-new-years-resolutions-for-2022/
https://www.thinkspot.com/feed/single_post?psid=Vnu456
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgcHKTxVPMY&list=PLU2M-shPcj1zZYoaApqDtbl64f1rIJnp5&index=9
May 10 15:00 ~ 15:22 forGL Demo & Summary with some Haxe Summary: Computer Programming with your language (22 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlWQe9VXhBk
https://community.haxe.org/t/haxe-us-summit-2019-video-links-all-3-days/1727
See Haxe.org for more details about US Summit 2019.
forGL Java and Python text style applications are available.
Haxe and other source files are available.
READ_ME.txt file is in each directory to help you.
forGL is what I call now an application that sometimes acts like a programming language. More details of forGL as an application are found below and by running the app and in the Docs directory.
Here is a very brief description of some of the programming language ideas in forGL. A very flexible Parser/Interpreter was needed to support the variety of 100+ natural languages of Earth. Support for display of languages other than English is found in various word definitions in provided dictionary .toml files.
identifies single Tokens. forGL Dictionary holds the list of known definitions for each "Word".
forGL Word use is very similar to a Word in a Forth programming language dictionary (math operators and punctuation are also considered to be words).
Forth language contributed 2 key Ideas to forGL:
1) the use of a Dictionary of word Definitions
2) Words in the Dictionary are used to express a given Problem to be solved by a Program in words that closely represent the important concepts of the Problem.
The "parts of speech" (upper level "types") of the forGL language are: Nouns, Verbs, Punctuation ( . , : ; ) and Operators (from Mathematics + - * / ^ and some others). Before the Interpreter starts each Token is searched for in the forGL Dictionary and any Tokens found are marked with the defined forGL type.
If a Token is not in the Dictionary then it is checked to see if it is: an Integer OR a Number with Decial digits that sometimes will have a decimal point OR a Number in Scientific Notation OR a Hexadecimal number OR a literal String (these are the common low level types that most computer Hardware directly supports: Integer of the CPU word size 8, 16, 32, 64 bits Signed or Unsigned, Double or Float size for example).
If a Token is still not identified it may be what is called a local Noun (a local Variable) within a Verb definition and treated as such. Local Nouns just exist as passive Tokens until referenced by the forGL Interpreter. Nouns are like variables in other programming languages which also mostly imitate the idea of a Variable from Algebra mathematics.
implements a lot of the forGL language syntax flexibility. Interpreter directly supports Prefix, Infix and Postfix notation in almost any combination. The only combinations of flexible syntax not support are those where forGL is following an existing notation convention. Examples of fixed notation: (to be added later)
Prefix, Infix and Postfix syntax of Addition that will show 7 as the sum. Haxe Math operators are all supported.
+ 5 2 show (prefix)
Prefix notation is popular in programming languages like Lisp and Functual Programming languages. Prefix notation syntax is perhaps more commonly found as ( + 5 2 ) where enclosing parenthesis are required.
5 + 2 show (infix)
Infix notation is common in many programming languages (as well as Mathematics). Haxe and all the programming languages that Haxe targets as output use Infix.
5 2 + show (postfix)
Postfix notation is frequently used in Concatenative programming languages such as Forth. Forth language uses Postfix notation for efficiency reasons (less CPU operations needed and less memory needed).
Assignment Support for Natural Language Use
from & into are used as follows. Both will set x as Integer 42 (result of Multiplication).
x from 6 * 7
6 * 7 into x
from keyword ( also := ) is exactly like Assignment operator '=' found in most programming languages.
into keyword ( also =: ) is added to support expressions that are closer to Natural languages.
Want to learn computer programming? forGL can help you.
Prior experience with computer programming or even knowing English is not needed. If you can use a Dictionary you are ready to program. Knowing how to use a Calculator may help but is not required.
forGL is built now as a text mode cross platform application (also called a command line application). Later this year forGL will have a graphical interface.
Because forGL allows you to do computer programming, forGL also provides features that computer programmers expect.
Colored text to clearly show different types of dictionary words:
Verbs
Nouns
Operators
Punctuation
There are also some special types of words that are provided by forGL to make programming easier.
Choice words (the program may choose to change the next statement based on a true or false comparison).
if, else, while ...
Other choice words are reserved but not yet working.
Another special type is called Built In Verbs.
These are Verbs that are always part of a forGL dictionary when it is built in memory.
show, view ...
forGL can run your code at full speed
or automatically but with a delay you want between steps
or manually under your control
forGL will give you Warnings or Errors and try to provide useful information about why.
Note: the screen capture above has settings you likely will want after you have good working forGL code.
forGL allows you to save your working forGL code as source code of other programming languages.
Below is a simple example:
x = sin ( pi / 4 ). "Sine of Pi / 4 = " + x show
This calculates the Sine of 45 degrees and then prints a message with the calculated value. Export as Code does some rearrangement before the forGL interpreter runs to this:
x := sin ( pi / 4 ) ; "Sine of Pi / 4 = " + x show
We see that the equal sign = was changed to := giving the side of what is changed.
x is on the left and so the := indicates the left side.
We can see that there is enough information captured in the Export as Code Log output to allow experienced programmers to manually convert to most other programming languages. There will be more work on Export as Code to change as much as possible to a form used by many other programming languages.
When Export as Code is fully working it will automatically generate source file(s) as wanted. The first programming language to save as will be Haxe because Haxe will then allow you to generate source code in about a dozen other programming languages.
The Export As Code feature is under active development and (hopefully) will be fully working soon.
This option gives details of small steps of various calculations or changes to Nouns as the forGL interpreter runs.
These details may help you to find a problem with your forGL code.
This option will show details of a Verb when it is ready to run by the forGL interpreter.
forGL interpreter uses 3 stacks internally (and some other stacks and structures as well, see the Run.hx code). Data, Operators (Ops) and Nouns stacks show current values of each while you Manually step or forGL Automatically steps through your code.
Above we see that after forGL ran there was a Noun named x with a value of 0.707106781186547
Select D for Data stack only if you do not want to see the small steps forGL uses to run your code.
If you select N then no stacks will show and forGL will be somewhat faster than using 0 delay time.
This lets you know that you will see the 3 stacks and Manual stepping is available.
You may use a number to set a delay between steps or any other key to manually step through your code.
If you use 0 meaning no delay, forGL has code that updates the 3 stacks or the Data stack (as you selected) 5 times a second.
This lets you know that the delay between steps you wanted will be done.
This will show the full contents of the in memory dictionary. When forGL starts it builds the in memory dictionary and then adds words that are valid that are from the .toml dictionary file.
Later when forGL is stopping, the in memory dictionary is saved back to the dictionary file if there were any changes to Nouns in the dictionary or if any new Verbs were saved.
When forGL starts the text of a test to try is provided. The lines above shows the simple test and allows you to use it by typing in "testverb".
The screen capture example of Export as Code above used: x = sin ( pi / 4 ). "Sine of Pi / 4 = " + x show
When you enter a Verb to test forGL will allow you to Save the Verb definition before exiting.
Ideas of Verbs, Nouns and Punctuation. Use of a Dictionary of words to support programming in a single or a mix of Natural Languages. You may use words from multiple languages within a single Verb definition.
Ideas of various operations and functions such as : add, subtract, sin, cos ...
Reserved key words or symbols such as : =, !=, if, then, while ...
Declarative key words such as: from, into, show, repeat ...
The forGL application is a rough prototype with features that are incomplete, have significant defects (bugs) or even missing entirely.
Most of the forGL application is written in Haxe with output to: C++, C#, Java, Python and JavaScript.
Laptops running Windows 7 and 10.
Languages used to implement forGL tested: C++, Java, Python, (all working OK)
C# (no color or cursor positioning),
JavaScript (not really working).
Very incomplete testing on old Android phone with incomplete JavaScript / HTML / JavaScript Web Worker (from Haxe).
Official web site https://www.forgl.org
Haxe Community forum (Very helpful members) Several references, search for: 4GL or forGL
https://community.haxe.org/t/forgl-information-in-github/1606/9
Haxe.io site ... Information about lots of programs using Haxe
https://opencollective.com/haxe/donate?referral=30077
... forGL awaits ...
