Summary

• Design
• Syntax
• Types
• Lists
• Documentation
• Implementation
• Fun

Design

• Why Yet Another Language?

  Short answer: Because existing scripting languages do not check anything at compile-time, and statically typed languages are not expressive enough

  Long answer: Check the WYAL

• Why should someone familiar with language XXX switch to merd?

  Short answer: Why should you switch to merd? if you are happy with XXX, you don't have to (adaptation of a citation of Matz)

  Long answer: Check merd vs other languages

• Is merd the ultimate programming language?

  Answer: Of course not, no programming language is perfect, a programming language could be described by its various design trade-offs.

  Here is a list of merd's Known Flaws

Syntax

• When should I use a method call and when should I use a function call?

  Short answer: As you like, it's the same

  Long answer: Check the function & method call syntax explaination

• 1+2 * 3 is parsed (1+2)*3 ?!?? Are you crazy!?

  Answer: I call this horizontal layout, check the rational

Types

• I don't understand the types, any examples?

  Answer: See the examples of merd's type system

Lists

• How do you make the difference between a tuple and a list?

  Short answer: a tuple is a list

  Long answer:

  • in the value land, everything is a tuple.
  • "List(t)" is the type of all tuples which elements are of type t
  • the "[ ... ]" construct forces a tuple to be seen as a list (upcast)
  examples:

  (1, 2) !! (1, 2)
  [1, 2] !! List(1 | 2)
  (1, 2) !< List(1 | 2)
  
  (1, 2) == [1, 2]  is true
  
  
  List(1)      is  () | ((1)) | (1, 1) | (1, 1, 1) | ...
  List(1 | 2)  is  () | ((1)) | ((2)) | (1, 1) | (1, 2) | (2, 1) | (2, 2) | ...
  

Documentation

• Where is the documentation?

  Answer: Not much is done yet

• I want to show merd, is there some presentation?

  Answer: Here is a small presentation (generated with MagicPoint from this file)

Implementation

• How fast is merd?

  Short answer: merd's speed is comparable to Python/Perl/Ruby

  Long answer: To achieve OCaml or C's speed, very good optimisations will be needed, especially for multi-methods. But merd is fast enough for most programs.

• Will merd be implemented in merd?

  Short answer: Not likely

  Long answer: merd's target is not writing compiler. You will be able to write one, but performance will surely stay far from OCaml's. Once again, performance is not the main goal of merd

Fun

• What's this stupid name?

  Short answer: How Dare You!

  Long answer: See the Thanks page. At least I can put the blame on the name if merd fails to take over the world...

• What is merd's motto?

  Answer: Choose the one you prefer below!

  • bring functional programming to the imperative world
  • bring functional programming to scripting languages
  • merd is the avenir of the Universe
  • with merd, your libraries will ruleZ dA wOrlD

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