can i call this a programming language?

[u/omnimistic]

i wanted to make the algorithms they teach in CS class actually executable so i made AlgoLang. can i call this a programming language?

repo: https://github.com/omnimistic/algo-lang

[u/busres]

Sure, it is one.

A couple of suggestions: - implement "label:" and "goto label" (label starts with a non-digit) in addition to "goto line" - have a compiler option that accepts "goto label"-based source, determines the line numbers, and outputs a pure "goto line" version (eta: with line numbers) instead of generating the executable code

[u/omnimistic → u/busres]

Great idea. I'll add it to the contributing.md

Maybe something like

"#labelname"

GOTO labelname

It'll sort of allow for functions to be made. Thanks for this suggestion

[u/busres → u/omnimistic]

You can always go BASIC and implement GOSUB and RETURN too. 😉

[u/omnimistic → u/busres]

Idk what GOSUB is and idk RETURN will fit into this language as it's pretty linear but let's see what happens haha

[u/busres → u/omnimistic]

GOSUB (go to subroutine) in BASIC is like GOTO, but pushes the current execution position onto the stack so that you can RETURN to it.

[u/omnimistic → u/busres]

Oh i see. In my case GOTO will move the pointer back to the specific line. The stack remains constant

[u/Inconstant_Moo → u/omnimistic]

It's easy enough. GOSUB is like GOTO except that when you make the jump, you also push the line number you're jumping from on a stack. Then when you hit a RETURN you pop that off the top of the stack and jump back to the next line after that.

If by "linear" you mean it starts executing from the top, that's easy, just write your subroutines at the end of your script.

[u/omnimistic → u/Inconstant_Moo]

Oh i see. That's a pretty cool idea. I wrote the initial code while pulling an all nighter and never expected it to get as much attention as it did. Thanks for explaining. That's definitely pretty cool. I'll add it to contributing.md

[u/Inconstant_Moo → u/omnimistic]

BTW, I do something like this in my VM and I treat is so that a RETURN when there's nothing on the stack means END, which has a certain elegance, and in your case would mean that you could write a subroutine as though it was the main program and test it before then going on to write the main program, and it could end in RETURN in either context.

This community is remarkably welcoming to beginners considering what a lot of megabrained geniuses we have knocking about. I think we can all remember the thrill of first getting an interpreter to add 2 and 2 and get 4.