mlisp/doc/Doc.md

Syntax and Special Forms

Special Form	Argument Evaluations	Purpose
(if cond a b)	if only evaluates its cond argument. If cond is truthy (non-zero), then a is evaluated. Otherwise, b is evaluated.	This special form is the main method of control flow.
(do a b c ...)	do takes a list of s-expressions and evaluates them in the order they were given (in the current scope), and then returns the result of the last s-expression.	This special form allows lambda functions to have multi-step bodies.
(scope a b c ...)	scope takes a list of s-expressions and evaluates them in the order they were given in a new scope, and then returns the result of the last s-expression.	This special form allows the user to evaluate blocks of code in new scopes.
(defun name params body)	defun evaluates none of its arguments.	This special form allows the user to conveniently define functions.
(define name value)	define evaluates the value argument, which is then assigned to name in the current scope.	This special form allows the user to bind atoms to values in a scope.
(lambda params body)	lambda evaluates none of its arguments.	This special form allows the user to define anonymous functions.
(quote x)	quote evaluates none of its arguments.	This is equivalent to the 'expr syntactic sugar.
(for x list ...)	for evaluates only its list argument.	for iterates through the list storing each element in x, and then evaluating all of the rest of the values in the for body. It then returns the last value evaluated.
(while cond ...)	while evaluates only its cond argument.	while evaluates its condition expression every iteration before running. If it is true, it continues to evaluate every expression in the while body. It then returns the last value evaluated.

Library

Using the binary

Run ml in interactive mode:

$ ./ml
>>> (print "Hello world!")
Hello world!
 => "Hello world!"

Interpret a file:

$ ./ml -f "examples/hello_world.lisp"
Hello world!

Interpret from command line argument:

$ ./ml -c '(print "Hello world!")'
Hello world!