meillo@37: .TH baum 1 "2008-03-01" "baum 0.3"
meillo@18: .SH NAME
meillo@18: baum \- an esoteric programming language
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: .SH SYNOPSIS
meillo@18: .B baum
meillo@31: [\-v]\ <file>
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: .SH DESCRIPTION
meillo@18: .B baum
meillo@18: is an interpreter for the baum programming language which is an experiment to create an esoteric programming language.
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: Source code is a representation of a tree in which every node is a command or data.
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: baum is only an experiment and the functionality is (currently) very restricted.
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: .SH OPTIONS
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: .TP
meillo@18: .BI \-v
meillo@42: Verbose output (All verbose output goes to stderr)
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: .TP
meillo@18: .BI \-\-help
meillo@18: Print usage information
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: .TP
meillo@18: .BI \-\-version
meillo@18: Print version information
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: .SH SOURCE CODE
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 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: 
meillo@18: Empty lines and everything vom the hash symbol (`#') to the end of the line is ignored.
meillo@18: 
meillo@37: .B An example that echoes (and returns) `42':
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: .nf
meillo@18: # comment
meillo@18: print(0)
meillo@18: 	sum(0)  #comment
meillo@18: 		number(40)
meillo@18: 		number(2)
meillo@18: .fi
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: .SH CONCEPT
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: baum programs are represented as nodes in a tree structure. Nodes are of specific kind and contain a value.
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 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@18: 
meillo@37: 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@18: 
meillo@18: 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@18: 
meillo@18: Nodes can modify the tree, but should do this only on it's brothers or better only through it's rightmost brother.
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: .SH ERRORS
meillo@18: 
meillo@43: 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: 
meillo@18: .TP
meillo@18: .BI 1
meillo@18: common error
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: .TP
meillo@18: .BI 3
meillo@18: no or more than one source file given
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: .TP
meillo@18: .BI 4
meillo@18: invalid node
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: .TP
meillo@31: .BI 5
meillo@31: indention over more than one level
meillo@31: 
meillo@31: .TP
meillo@33: .BI 6
meillo@33: node name too long, or no value given
meillo@33: 
meillo@33: .TP
meillo@42: .BI 126
meillo@18: invalid command line options
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: .SH BUGS
meillo@18: Please report if you find some.
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: .SH CREDITS
meillo@18: Ju developed the idea of
meillo@18: .B baum
meillo@18: with me in a conversation. Actually it was his idea to use the tree as basic structure.
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: 
meillo@18: .SH AUTHOR
meillo@18: markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> and julian forster