Bigger scheme - sam's capsule: sloum's small s-expression based language - Part 2

           /       \       /
    k --- a         b --- f
   /       \       /       \
           me --- l         i
   \       /       \       /
    j --- c         d --- e
           \       /
            g --- h

Part 1

Whaddazidoo

Great, it seems to work, good for you, Sam. Where are the comments?

...rrrrigh. The comments.

Let's write some comments

Scheme, and 'slope' is a Scheme dialect, uses semicolon ';' as a comment marker.

; Define our stack.
; - General note: I use names with capital letters to differentiate my own stuff from interpreter's command and internal variables
; - Noticed the tick ' in from of the ()? Good. We don't want this _list_ to be evaluated now
(define Stack '())
;
; PUSH - because an empty stack is no fun.
;        Puts ('pushes') the value of the parameter on top of the stack.
;      - accept: 1 parameter
;      - modify: stack
;      - return: none
;
; - we define PUSH as a function
(define PUSH (lambda
; - with one parameter 'val'
	(val)
; - all it does is to set new value of the list Stack
		(set! Stack
; - to a new list, built with 'cons', consisting of our 'val' and the old list
			(cons val Stack))))

; POP  - because we are not hording the values, we are going to use them.
;        Removes ('pops') the value from the top of the stack and returns it
;      - accept: none
;      - modify: stack
;      - return: value on top of the stack
;
; - we define POP as a function
(define POP  (lambda
; - with no parameters
	()
; - as a compound expression -- we will use the result of evaluation of the first expression as a return value
		(begin0
; - ... and that would be that: car (CAR - Contents of the Address part of Register number - an ancient lingo for 'head'/'first element' of the list)
			(car Stack)
; - now we set the new value of our Stack list to
; - cdr (CDR - Contents of the Decrement part of the Register number - and that would be the 'tail'/'rest'/'remainder' of the list)
				(set! Stack (cdr Stack)))))

Cute, but what if I want to access other elements of the list?

You can use a combination of CAR's and CDR's to get there :)

Let's have some fun

[insert image: Spongebob "F.U.N."]
Note: the '>' in the first column is slope's prompt, do not type or copy it when experimenting!
Note: of course you don't have to type/copy the comments ;)
- Start your 'slope'
- Type (or copy-paste what I already typed in):

; define our 'guinea pig' list
> (define List '(1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9))
; that's intepreter's return value, I left the first to let you know it happens, but will delete them in the following code
#1=> ok
; display it, with a new line character at the end, for better readibility (yes, 'display' accepts one or more parameters)
> (display List "\n")
; looks exactly as we define it
(1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9)
; let's get it's 'head'
> (display (car List) "\n")
; that worked :)
1
; and now - the tail
> (display (cdr List) "\n")
; great, that worked too
(2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9)
; what about... a head of the tail?
> (display (car (cdr List)) "\n")
; that would be '2', right?
2
; right
; now... a head of the tail of the tail
> (display (car (cdr (cdr List))) "\n")
; Great :) You get it?
3
; if the tail of the tail had a head... what about the tail of the tail of the tail?
> (display (car (cdr (cdr (cdr List)))) "\n")
; yup, that will work too
4
; but don't get obssessed with the head... 😏
; the tail of the tail of the tail has a tail too
> (display (cdr (cdr (cdr (cdr List)))) "\n")
; yesss! It does
(5 6 7 8 9)
; did we break something?
> (display List "\n")
; Apparently we didn't. To change a list you need to assign a new value to it
(1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9)

That's all for now, folks

So far we learnt:
- 'define' is used for... defining things *ba-dumm-tssss*
- a function in slope is a list
- lists have heads ('car') and tails ('cdr')
- most tails had their heads and tails too (the shortest ones don't, but we're not there yet)
- my understanding of 'fun' is weird.

See you then,
-- sam

Get slope

Gitea repository (https://git.rawtext.club)