Prexonite Script

Prexonite Today #2

In the last month I have not finished anything, but implemented a lot. Currently Prexonite is a working, 20'000-lines-of-code calculator library with support for subroutines. The virtual machine correctly interprets all available instructions except for static CLR calls. The application object model represents everything except parameter type constraints and commands. The Prexonite compiler recognizes only GetSet (function calls, variable assignments) and return statements; you can however write your code in Assembler if you need to.

My list of priorities looks like this:

1. Condition and loop statements
2. CLR static calls
3. Object creation
4. Commands
5. Initialize function (aka "global code")
6. Variable references
7. Function...
   • references
   • continuations
8. Build block
9. Embedded functions
10. Inline functions
11. Coroutines¹
12. Futuristic stuff:
    • Subcoroutines
    • Compiler optimizations
    • Function inlineing

I'm also a bit stuck with the syntax of static CLR calls and object creation. The full syntax would looks as follows:

var obj = new Object("System.Text.StringBuilder");

Now this, of course, is not very intuitive and I would prefer the use of the static member operator "::"

var obj = new System::Text::StringBuilder;

But while this sample is unambiguous, something like

var obj = new String;

is not. The simple solution is using a prefix to determine which environment to use and I would say "::" fits best:

var obj = new::String;

You can also put a space between "new" and "::" if you like (Prexonite is a freeform language). The syntax for static calls would be similar:

//String = PType.String
~String.Escape(someValue);
//String = System.String
::String.Format(someFormat, someValue);
System::Text::Encoding::UTF8.GetBytes("Hello");

If the call starts with an imported namespace ("System" is imported by default), the call will be targeted at the CLR.