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Reader

GOOS and GOAL both use the same reader, which converts text files to S-Expressions and allows these s-expressions to be mapped back to a line in a source file for error messages. This document explains the syntax of the reader. Note that these rules do not explain the syntax of the language (for instance, GOAL has a much more complicated system of integers and many more restrictions), but rather the rules of how your program source must look.

Integer Input

Integers handled by the reader are 64-bits. Any overflow is considered an error. An integer can be specified as a decimal, like 0 or -12345; in hex, like #xbeef; or in binary, like #b101001. All three representations can be used anywhere an integer is used. Hex numbers do not care about the case of the characters. Decimal numbers are signed, and wrapping from a large positive number to a negative number will generate an error. The valid input range for decimals is INT64_MIN to INT64_MAX. Hex and binary are unsigned and do not support negative signs, but allow large positive numbers to wrap to negative. Their input range is 0 to UINT64_MAX. For example, -1 can be entered as -1 or #xffffffffffffffff, but not as UINT64_MAX in decimal.

Floating Point Input

Floating point values handled by the reader are implemented with double. Weird numbers (denormals, NaN, infinity) are invalid and not handled by the reader directly. A number must have a decimal point to be interpreted as floating point. Otherwise, it will be an integer. Leading/trailing zeros are optional.

Character Input

Characters are used to represent characters that are part of text. The character c is represented by #\c. This representation is used for all ASCII characters between ! and ~. There are three special characters which have a non-standard representation:

  • Space : #\\s
  • New Line: #\\n
  • Tab: #\\t

All other characters are invalid.

Strings

A string is a sequence of characters, surrounding by double quotes. The ASCII characters from to ~ excluding " can be entered directly. Strings have the following escape codes:

  • \\ : insert a backslash
  • \n : insert a new line
  • \t : insert a tab
  • \" : insert a double quote

Comments

The reader supports line comments with ; and multi-line comments with #| |#. For example

(print "hi") ; prints hi

#|
this is a multi-line comment!
(print "hi") <- this is commented out.
|#

Array

The reader supports arrays with the following syntax:

; array of 1, 2, 3, 4
#(1 2 3 4)

Arrays can be nested with lists, pairs, and other arrays.

Pair

The reader supports pairs with the following syntax:

; pair of a, b
(a . b)

Pairs can be nested with lists, pairs, and arrays.

List

The reader supports lists. Lists are just an easier way of constructing a linked list of pairs, terminated with the empty list. The empty list is a special list written like ().

; list of 1, 2, 3
(1 2 3)
; actually the same as
(1 . (2 . (3 . ())))

Symbol

A symbol is a sequence of characters containing no whitespace, and not matching any other data type. (Note: this is not a very good definition). Typically symbols are lower case, and words are separated by a -. Examples:

this-is-a-symbol
; you can have weird symbols too:
#f
#t
-
*
+
__WEIRDLY-NamedSymbol ; this is weird, but OK.

Reader Macros

The reader has some default macros which are common in Scheme/LISP:

  • 'x will be replaced with (quote x)
  • `x will be replaced with (quasiquote x)
  • ,x will be replaced with (unquote x)
  • ,@ will be replaced with (unquote-splicing x)