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by DonaldFisk 3486 days ago
It's quite impressive that you've got so far so quickly.

There are some similarities to my own Full Metal Jacket (http://web.onetel.com/~hibou/fmj/FMJ.html), which I'm still actively developing, but I suspect there are significant differences as well. So I have a few questions.

(1) Is the computation model dataflow, i.e. do vertices execute asynchronously, when all their inputs have values?

(2) If not, is Skov a visual equivalent of factor or some other textual language?

(3) Is it statically or dynamically typed?

(4) How is iteration done?

(5) Is there a lambda?

1 comments

(1) & (2) The code is compiled using the Factor compiler so it really works like Factor (3) Dynamically typed, type errors will be caught at runtime (4) You use "while" and "until", you can see an example in the last screenshot in the web page (5) There is a lambda. There are several examples of this on the web page, including a lambda inside a lambda
It's quite different then, despite the superficial similarities.

(1) Full Metal Jacket is explicitly dataflow - that's how the interpreter works. How to compile it (and to what) is an open problem for me, but there are a number of options. I won't release it until I have a working compiler.

(2) It's not a visual version of any existing text-based language. It is implemented in Lisp, and you can mix the two languages, but it's nothing like Lisp.

(3) It's very strongly statically typed, with type inference. Type errors are prevented by the editor. Run time errors are simply unacceptable.

(4) Iteration is done two different ways: using a feedback mechanism, and using emitters and collectors.

(5) Lambdas, including non-local capture of values, are built into the language.

More information here, including papers and tutorials: http://web.onetel.com/~hibou/fmj/FMJ.html