smlsharp
empirical-lang
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smlsharp | empirical-lang | |
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2 | 6 | |
211 | 167 | |
3.8% | 0.0% | |
3.7 | 1.8 | |
6 months ago | about 3 years ago | |
Standard ML | C++ | |
MIT License | GNU General Public License v3.0 or later |
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smlsharp
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Table Oriented Programming (2002)
Another relevant software category is the statistical analysis languages, including SAS, Stata and SPSS.
Old-school SAS included only two data types (floats and character strings), but allowed for SQL and sequential data-steps to live together. Persistence was baked in. The floats could be used to represent dates, datetimes and other formats. I particularly appreciated being able to use macros to define a data-step view to split the follow-up for an individual from a table. Such a view could then be collapsed using SQL. SAS also allows for using variables. More recently, R tools such as dplyr have brought together data-frames and relational operations. However, I miss the sequential coding in SAS, using macros as higher-level tools to define the logic, including corner cases.
For strictly typed records, I have always wanted to spend more time with SML# [0] this allows for record updating, with close ties to SQL -- an under-appreciated version of SML.
empirical-lang
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Code in Database vs. Code in Application
I'm interested in languages experimenting with integrating tables/dataframes and the relational model as native parts of the language
With how much of the code I've written that's been around representing entities and doing CRUD on collections of them it seems a bit wild not to have native "Table" types.
There's an HN user who has a neat language called "Empirical" based on this, and there's an active research language called "Flix" that has this as well. APL/K and other array langs feature a similar concept as I understand it.
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Table Oriented Programming (2002)
I built my own table-oriented language out of frustrations I had with with time-series analysis:
https://www.empirical-soft.com
Empirical has statically typed Dataframes. It can infer the type of a file's contents at compile time using a ton of metaprogramming techniques.
>>> let trades = load("trades.csv")
I started Empirical with the goal of "q like Haskell". The end result went in a radically different direction, but the guiding light has always been to have a statically typed language where tables and queries are a first-class operation.
The source code is publicly available under AGPL with the Commons Clause:
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Scripting Languages of the Future
Some of the OP's observations are why I wrote Empirical [1].
- I wanted static types that felt dynamic, which meant being able to infer types from a file as long as the file path can be determined at compile time.
- I wanted Dataframes to be a first-class container since the high-level of abstraction leads to great performance when doing analytics.
Therefore, I created a language with statically typed Dataframes. Empirical can infer a CSV's type at compile time, namely because performs compile-time function evaluation automatically. The result is a language that runs easily in a REPL but can be used for long-running scripts without worrying about common programming errors.
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APL Compiler Based on Tail (Typed Array Intermediate Language)
I wanted to hit the runtime repeatedly with as little overhead as possible. So VVM has no type look-up, multiple operands per instruction, and a cache-efficient IR. The sum() operand for the above example is invoked directly in a loop almost as fast as hand-written C++.
VVM has its own assembly language [2]. I have blog post that explains some of the design choices [3].
[1] https://github.com/empirical-soft/empirical-lang/tree/master...
[2] https://github.com/empirical-soft/empirical-lang/tree/master...
[3] https://www.empirical-soft.com/2020/09/03/a-tour-of-the-vect...
What are some alternatives?
passerine - A small extensible programming language designed for concise expression with little code.
Apache Geode - Apache Geode
apltail - APL Compiler targeting a typed array intermediate language
piccolo - An experimental stackless Lua VM implemented in pure Rust
Linq-in-Rust - Language Integrated Query in Rust.
xonsh - :shell: Python-powered, cross-platform, Unix-gazing shell.
tail2futhark
Beef - Beef Programming Language
april - The APL programming language (a subset thereof) compiling to Common Lisp.
IndexedTables.jl - Flexible tables with ordered indices
langs-in-rust - A list of programming languages implemented in Rust, for inspiration.
zx - A tool for writing better scripts