baum

annotate baum.1 @ 56:7adeee76ce3e

find changesets by author, revision, files, or words in the commit message
updated TODO; removed trailing spaces from LICENSE
author meillo@marmaro.de
date Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:11:02 +0100
parents 201b4603671a
children b7544f23673b
rev   line source
meillo@51 1 .TH baum 1 "2008-03-01" "baum 0.4"
meillo@18 2 .SH NAME
meillo@18 3 baum \- an esoteric programming language
meillo@18 4
meillo@18 5
meillo@18 6
meillo@18 7 .SH SYNOPSIS
meillo@18 8 .B baum
meillo@31 9 [\-v]\ <file>
meillo@18 10
meillo@18 11
meillo@18 12
meillo@18 13 .SH DESCRIPTION
meillo@18 14 .B baum
meillo@18 15 is an interpreter for the baum programming language which is an experiment to create an esoteric programming language.
meillo@18 16
meillo@18 17 Source code is a representation of a tree in which every node is a command or data.
meillo@18 18
meillo@18 19 baum is only an experiment and the functionality is (currently) very restricted.
meillo@18 20
meillo@18 21
meillo@18 22
meillo@18 23
meillo@18 24 .SH OPTIONS
meillo@18 25
meillo@18 26 .TP
meillo@18 27 .BI \-v
meillo@42 28 Verbose output (All verbose output goes to stderr)
meillo@18 29
meillo@18 30 .TP
meillo@18 31 .BI \-\-help
meillo@18 32 Print usage information
meillo@18 33
meillo@18 34 .TP
meillo@18 35 .BI \-\-version
meillo@18 36 Print version information
meillo@18 37
meillo@18 38
meillo@18 39
meillo@18 40
meillo@18 41
meillo@18 42
meillo@48 43 .SH CONCEPT
meillo@48 44
meillo@48 45 baum programs are represented as nodes in a tree structure. Nodes are of specific kind and contain a value.
meillo@48 46
meillo@48 47 The tree is processed recursive starting at the root node. Every node controls it's sons and should only know them; while most nodes only use their leftmost son.
meillo@48 48
meillo@48 49 Each node returns a value to it's parent. (The root node returns an exit code to the shell.) The internal value of the node could be used in any useful way, but only inside the node.
meillo@48 50
meillo@48 51 All values in the language (return values, expected return values and in-node values) should be of the same type, so that every combination of nodes is possible.
meillo@48 52
meillo@48 53 Nodes can modify the tree, but should do this only on it's brothers or better only through it's rightmost brother.
meillo@48 54
meillo@48 55
meillo@48 56
meillo@18 57 .SH SOURCE CODE
meillo@18 58
meillo@18 59 Source code are plain text files with one node per line representing the tree. The indention controls in which level in the tree the node is. Indention can be made with SPACE or with TAB characters. Every character means one level.
meillo@18 60
meillo@18 61 Empty lines and everything vom the hash symbol (`#') to the end of the line is ignored.
meillo@18 62
meillo@37 63 .B An example that echoes (and returns) `42':
meillo@18 64
meillo@18 65 .nf
meillo@18 66 # comment
meillo@18 67 print(0)
meillo@18 68 sum(0) #comment
meillo@18 69 number(40)
meillo@18 70 number(2)
meillo@18 71 .fi
meillo@18 72
meillo@18 73
meillo@48 74 .SH NODES
meillo@18 75
meillo@48 76 .TP
meillo@51 77 .B create
meillo@51 78 Creates a new number node as last brother. The value of the new node is ether read from standard input (if the node has no son), or the return value of the first son. Returns 0 always.
meillo@18 79
meillo@48 80 .TP
meillo@52 81 .B if
meillo@52 82 Compares return value of first son and second son. The internal value defines how the comparation is done. 33 (`!') means not equal; 60 (`<') less than; 62 (`>') greater than; and everything else stands for equal. Requires two sons. Returns 1 for true and 0 for false.
meillo@52 83
meillo@52 84 .TP
meillo@48 85 .B number
meillo@48 86 Executes it's leftmost son. Returns the internal value.
meillo@18 87
meillo@48 88 .TP
meillo@48 89 .B print
meillo@48 90 Prints the return value of it's leftmost son. Ether as char (if the internal value is 99), or as number otherwise. Returns the return value of the leftmost son (passes through).
meillo@18 91
meillo@48 92 .TP
meillo@48 93 .B sum
meillo@48 94 Executes all of it's sons. Returns the sum of their return values.
meillo@18 95
meillo@48 96 .TP
meillo@48 97 .B times
meillo@48 98 Copies everything below the node and pastes it as last brother(s). Returns 0 always.
meillo@18 99
meillo@52 100 .TP
meillo@52 101 .B while
meillo@52 102 Executes it's second son as long the first son returns a logical true (not `0'). Requires two sons. Returns 0 always;
meillo@52 103
meillo@52 104
meillo@48 105
meillo@48 106
meillo@48 107
meillo@18 108
meillo@18 109
meillo@18 110 .SH ERRORS
meillo@18 111
meillo@43 112 You have to keep in mind, that valid programs that run successful can return exit codes different from zero too! Each program returns the return value of the root node to the shell. If you don't want your program doing this, just set a `number(0)' node as root, and put everything else below.
meillo@43 113
meillo@18 114 .TP
meillo@18 115 .BI 1
meillo@18 116 common error
meillo@18 117
meillo@18 118 .TP
meillo@18 119 .BI 3
meillo@18 120 no or more than one source file given
meillo@18 121
meillo@18 122 .TP
meillo@18 123 .BI 4
meillo@18 124 invalid node
meillo@18 125
meillo@18 126 .TP
meillo@31 127 .BI 5
meillo@31 128 indention over more than one level
meillo@31 129
meillo@31 130 .TP
meillo@33 131 .BI 6
meillo@33 132 node name too long, or no value given
meillo@33 133
meillo@33 134 .TP
meillo@52 135 .BI 7
meillo@52 136 a node has not the required amount of sons
meillo@52 137
meillo@52 138 .TP
meillo@55 139 .BI 10
meillo@55 140 unable to open input file, unable to allocate memory, or something similar
meillo@55 141
meillo@55 142 .TP
meillo@42 143 .BI 126
meillo@18 144 invalid command line options
meillo@18 145
meillo@18 146
meillo@18 147
meillo@18 148 .SH BUGS
meillo@18 149 Please report if you find some.
meillo@18 150
meillo@18 151
meillo@18 152 .SH CREDITS
meillo@18 153 Ju developed the idea of
meillo@18 154 .B baum
meillo@18 155 with me in a conversation. Actually it was his idea to use the tree as basic structure.
meillo@18 156
meillo@18 157
meillo@18 158
meillo@18 159 .SH AUTHOR
meillo@18 160 markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> and julian forster