Source (programming language)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Source | |
|---|---|
| Paradigms | Multi-paradigm: scripting, imperative, procedural, functional |
| Family | ECMAScript: JavaScript |
| First appeared | 2017 |
| Stable release | 2024 (Strange)
/ 31 December 2021 |
| Typing discipline | Dynamic, duck |
| OS | browser-based |
| License | Apache |
| Filename extensions | .js |
| Website | docs |
| Major implementations | |
| Safari (Safari's JavaScript is properly tail recursive), Source Academy[1] | |
| Dialects | |
| Source §1, Source §2, Source §3, Source §4 | |
| Influenced by | |
| JavaScript, Scheme | |
Source is a family of sublanguages of JavaScript, developed for the textbook Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, JavaScript Edition (SICP JS). The JavaScript sublanguages Source §1, Source §2, Source §3, and Source §4 are designed to be only expressive enough to support all examples of the respective chapter of the textbook.
During the development of SICP JS, starting in 2008, it became clear that purpose-designed sublanguages of JavaScript would contribute to the learning experience. Initially called "JediScript" and inspired by the book "JavaScript: The Good Parts"[2] by Douglas Crockford, the Source sublanguages follow the chapters of SICP JS; each language Source §x is a sublanguage of the next language Source §(x+1). Following the minimalist approach of SICP JS, implementations of Source are expected to remove any JavaScript language features that are not included in the language specification.[3]
Features
Source §1 is a very small purely functional sublanguage of JavaScript, designed for Chapter 1 of SICP JS. Source §2 adds pairs and a list library, following the data structures theme of Chapter 2. Source §3 adds stateful constructs, and Source §4 adds support for meta-circular evaluation. Chapter 5 of SICP JS does not require language support beyond Source §4. All Source languages are properly tail recursive, as required by Chapter 1 of SICP and as specified by ECMAScript 2015.
