Gumberoo - Making a new learning language intepreter using FPC

[deathshadow]

Pardon me. It seems I misunderstood your intention. I got a feling that you intend to make completly new programing language from scratch.

It is... but it's an interpreted one like PHP, Python, Perl, ROM Basic, Javascript, (and if you don't buy into this virtual machine BS, Java), etc -- instead of a compiled one. At this point being 'truly original' is a joke (given 90% of programming languages are just C rehashed -- see Java and PHP) but there are some ways to make things simpler.

A lot of the choices come from Python and Ruby without the parts to me are either needlessly complex, pointless, or annoying. (annoying? Elif much?!?).

BTW how come you have decided to not include support for pointers? I do understand that for beginner they might seem verry complicated, but when you learn working with them then you realize that they can be verry powerful if used corectly.

First, as you said it is a complicated concept; one I really wasn't able to grasp until Junior high and I was pretty up on the take for this sort of stuff. (given I'd written my first business app in diBol at 13)

But more importantly, given the other stuff I've omitted, what purpose would they serve? There's no direct memory access, no complex data structures like record or userland objects, arrays are (hopefully) going to automatically be dynamic (since I'll be using "array of" with setlength on the back end)... Pointers for the sake of having pointers is... pointless.

Plenty of real world deployment languages get along just fine without them. PHP doesn't have pointers... Java doesn't have them; they have handles which will work much akin to my 'createxxxxx' methods...

They're an advanced concept best left to an intermediate or higher language, not a elementary one.

Though I've been beating myself up over including/not including all sorts of things like pointers the past week and a half since I started this project on a cocktail napkin during a "brainstorming luncheon". I keep having to remind myself "don't make it any more complicated than a 1980's ROM Basic, just let it do more"

Which means no scope, no pointers, no user functions, no typecasting of numerics, no complex data structures.