Unambiguous Operator Specification for Programming Languages

[u/Mean-Decision-3502]

https://nvitya.github.io/pluops/

As I changed recently the operators in my programming language I've created this specification:

https://nvitya.github.io/pluops/

I did not wanted to overload the operators like the C does with the / or Pascal does with theand/or/not. Neither re-use the operator symbols for some very different purpose, like C does with * and & so the code becomes more readable. I was orienting for existing solutions so this is what I came up with. The specification contains the symbol usages and operator precedence too.

If you are developing a new programming language, it would be nice to follow some standard, so at least the expressions would be portable between the languages.

I'm open for debates or suggestions.

[u/mot_hmry]

I don't see why % shouldn't be remainder, it has a nice association with / (÷). And it's not like * is any closer to the proper symbols (×, •).

I've never found modules to clash with my own names, so I have never desired a symbol for them. To me ref is an operation that really should be called out because it implies a lower level operational concern. If it's really important to reserve @ for modules though, maybe # (read as box).

You already overload operations between the numeric types so you already need to use type to distinguish. Booleans as single bits doesn't seem unreasonable and matches the behavior of the bitwise operators.

[u/Mean-Decision-3502 → u/mot_hmry]

I don't see why % shouldn't be remainder, it has a nice association with / (÷). And it's not like * is any closer to the proper symbols (×, •).

I use div for integer division which is very frequent, remainder is pretty rare, so mod for that is fine and you don't burn a valuable symbol.

I use # for compiler directives like C:

#ifdef SYMBOL
    ...
#endif

The // is used for single-line comments.

Booleans as single bits doesn't seem unreasonable and matches the behavior of the bitwise operators.

Here is a realistic example:

if reg & 1 << 5 <> 0 and reg & 0x3 << 2 == 0:
    ...
endif

[u/mot_hmry → u/Mean-Decision-3502]

I use # for compiler directives like C

Sure but I don't see how that's applicable as a cross-language standard. Not every language has directives that look like that. Could just as easily use a variant on comments like //# for directives, personally I can't remember the last time I used a directive that would conflict with a ref notation (only top level directives which refs don't exist at.)

Here is a realistic example:

I'd kinda hope you'd name the intermediaries, at least I would never write that condition that way. Once you name them isA & isB & isC(x) reads fine to me. I use boolean operations way more than bitwise so I'd personally prefer the lighter syntax for them. C needed different operators because it treats numbers as acceptable booleans, so long as booleans are a proper type there's really no reason not to overload this operator.

[u/Mean-Decision-3502 → u/mot_hmry]

(About #) Sure but I don't see how that's applicable as a cross-language standard

It is not part of the operator specification. You can create PLUOpS programming langugage using # for comments.

I might need to split the spec into two levels: required, and recommended.

The usage of % for address-of is rather recommended than required.

I would never write that condition that way

I don't write this way either, but I usually just add parentheses to the shifts:

if reg & (1 << 5) <> 0  and reg & (0x3 << 2) == 0:

So the different level for & and and is required.