Read Update #1 Syntax Error I addressed two problems since last update: A bad error message, and an image loading error. The bad error message was triggered when an unknown symbol […]
Drawing a bitmap in the window (Leaf-SDL #2)
New Game: A quest for graphics (Leaf-SDL #1)
I’ve started a journey to make Leaf more visual. You may have seen some of my videos about complexity, complete with shaky mouse drawn lines. It’s simply not good enough, especially […]
Debugging a defect with a shared argument
While writing some error handling helpers, during my algorithm stream, I encountered a defect. It’s a tricky one dealing with the passing of shared arguments to functions in Leaf. After a lot […]
What is a closure?
You’ve heard the term, you’ve probably even used them, but what exactly is a closure? It’s a combination of data and code that have become a staple of modern programming. They offer […]
Adding += and friends to Leaf
Yesterday I finished a rather simple Kata from Codewars: the sum of a sequence of numbers. It was straight forward to implement, but I felt like it was missing something. It looked […]
Do we need 3, or just 2 error types?
Error handling is hard, and it’s made harder by a rich error hierarchy. Programs that successfully handle errors tend to have only a couple of generic handlers. Code that catches specific types […]
Sorting a file: A real program in Leaf
Finally, a big step for Leaf: something that could be called an actual program. Over the weekend I finished a program that loads a file, sorts the lines, and writes it to […]
Working with types and named constructors in Leaf
As types are a keystone in Leaf, working with them must be fluid and simple. I recently improved this area by adding named constructors and bare type names. The results are interesting. […]
The agonizing necessity of cached calculations
Language support for caching sucks. Despite an ever present need to cache data and calculations most languages require the programmer to do all the work. There’s no way to track dependencies, no […]
The bitwise complement, or not operator, is unsafe
I came upon a problem with bitwise complement (logical not): it isn’t safe. It’s nothing new, but it really registered while implementing the logical operations in Leaf. The issue is the result […]
Porting Leaf from Linux to OSX
I recently ported Leaf from Linux to OSX. I figured it was about time to start making it cross-platform. The goal is to get it compiling useful libraries for iOS and Android […]
Is reference counting slower than GC?
“Reference counting is slower than garbage collection”, a claim often made in the discussion of memory management. I heard it again recently when discussing Leaf; somebody took issue with my arguments against […]
Adding the first type expression to Leaf: type_infer
I’ve added the ability to type a variable based on an expression. The type_infer type operator resolves to the type of the provided expression — a useful feature for parametrics. Though not […]
The curse of varargs
Unexpectedly I needed to add support for variable argument functions to Leaf long before I intended to. I just wanted to print out a value, but it turns out that the standard […]
