rhoScript on HackerShow

Languages and libraries

concatenative programming language

SHOW HN2013

I designed a language for code golf, compiling to Common Lisp

How HN reacted

rhoScript

Curious

Mostly questions and neutral comments

3 positive, 13 neutral or mixed, 4 critical. Score -0.01

LikedInteresting and fun concept, thought-provoking implementation

ObjectedTry page did not run programs correctly at first

Summaries made by AI from the thread.

Shown by n_c on Aug 25, 2013. Click the card to turn it over.

102points

40comments

#225of 1,739 in 2013

Top 13%of 2013 by points

How HN took it

CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments

3 positive, 10 neutral or asking, 3 mixed, 4 critical, out of 20 comments about the project. Thread score -0.01.

Design: 1 for, 3 againstIdea: 1 for, 0 againstExecution: 0 for, 1 againstDocs: 1 for, 0 against

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

Interesting and fun concept, thought-provoking implementation
From 3 comments
- 1. I am new to the concept of golf code and stack based languages, but I find the concept, and the implementation, quite compelling. Thank you for doing this - it is…
  javajosh on HN
- This isn't really substantive feedback about the language, but this is a magnificent bit of fun, even if I can't figure out any time I'd want to use it :)
  wging on HN
- This is the first time I've seen dynamic typing arising from simple systems as opposed to making the implementation more complex. Beautiful!
  pestaa on HN
Arithmetic encoding makes dynamic typing emerge from a simple design
From 1 comment
- This is the first time I've seen dynamic typing arising from simple systems as opposed to making the implementation more complex. Beautiful!
  pestaa on HN
Readable compared to K golf solutions
From 1 comment
- > qn:{[n],/{:[n=#x;,x;,/_f'f x,\:/:(!n)_dvl,/x]}'(f:0 -1 1+/:)@!n} bd:{[p]`0:".Q"p=\:!#p} One of the reasons golf never interested me is because people kept making these totally…
  javajosh on HN

Try page did not run programs correctly at first
From 2 comments
- 1. I am new to the concept of golf code and stack based languages, but I find the concept, and the implementation, quite compelling. Thank you for doing this - it is…
  javajosh on HN
- Ah, ok. That answers another question I had which was why you added a run keyword at all when it was so repetitive! I'd left out the run keyword before, but was confronted with…
  javajosh on HN
Dynamic typing of functions makes reasoning hard
From 2 comments
- IMO a types stack languages does not make much sense. If the stack side effect is typed a function does alway have to return the same number of arguments and consume the same…
  fosap on HN
- Dynamic stack effects are pretty hard to reason about in nontrivial programs. Even Factor, which is largely dynamic wrt typing and dispatch, has a very limited number of words…
  evincarofautumn on HN
Hard to see a practical use beyond fun
From 1 comment
- This isn't really substantive feedback about the language, but this is a magnificent bit of fun, even if I can't figure out any time I'd want to use it :)
  wging on HN
Rho symbol fails to render without a font
From 2 comments
- Rho symbol isn't loading for me in Chrome, v.29
  bkurtz13 on HN
- That is probably because you have no font installed with a rho in it.
  fosap on HN

Pretty-printed input support
From 2 comments
- Is there support for pretty-printed input? I'm hesitant to mention this since it doesn't really take away from your project, but "concatinatitive" should be spelled…
  fsck--off on HN
- Not yet, that's definitely a priority though. Well that's embarrassing! (fixed)
  n_c on HN
Support for typeclasses or typed polymorphism
From 1 comment
- From a Haskell background I want to suggest typeclass mechanisms to enable valid polymorphism types. The compiled form can be the same, but the classes help to note that the…
  tel on HN
Fair byte-for-byte comparison with APL, K and J
From 2 comments
- I'd like to see a true apples to apples comparison (you can also save characters in J if you simplify the output requirements)
  nonchalance on HN
- Yeah, I hope at some point to do that. I expect only a few bytes need to be added to make the outputs be exactly identical. Almost all code-golf programs will be correct output…
  n_c on HN
Genetic programming use of the language
From 1 comment
- I have always thought that a language optimized for code golf, like this one, would be ideal to use for evolving programs. Use genetic algorithms to modify possible program…
  mcherm on HN

F and XY concatenative golf languages
From 1 comment
- Nice implementation of a concatenative language, and the relatively robust standard library it already has is nice. Is there anything different about its execution model from…
  jdp on HN
GolfScript
From 1 comment
- This reminds me of GolfScript [1], another language designed specifically for code golf. [1]: http://www.golfscript.com/golfscript/
  hk__2 on HN
K and J array languages
From 2 comments
- K notation is a bit longer: generalized n queen with board display is qn:{[n],/{:[n=#x;,x;,/_f'f x,\:/:(!n)_dvl,/x]}'(f:0 -1 1+/:)@!n} bd:{[p]`0:".Q"p=\:!#p} (see…
  beagle3 on HN
- How does it compare to APL/K+/J for some common problems?
  nonchalance on HN
Factor and Joy
From 2 comments
- Nice implementation of a concatenative language, and the relatively robust standard library it already has is nice. Is there anything different about its execution model from…
  jdp on HN
- Factor's typing discipline is largely dynamic. However, they enforce the usage of annotations for higher order operations (recursive and inline) and strongly encourage the use of…
  brandonbloom on HN