added a load of description and also changed the index page

1 files changed, 132 insertions, 37 deletions

diff --git a/comp/lucas-standen-NEA/writeup/coverpage.ms b/comp/lucas-standen-NEA/writeup/coverpage.ms
index 54e4746..48a6071 100644
--- a/comp/lucas-standen-NEA/writeup/coverpage.ms
+++ b/comp/lucas-standen-NEA/writeup/coverpage.ms
@@ -6,6 +6,23 @@ Lucas standen
 7949
 .AB
 .NH 1
+Reading this document
+.PP
+This document is writen in roff and can be found online at 
+
+https://github.com/standenboy/school/tree/master/comp/lucas-standen-NEA/writeup
+
+It is using the ms macro of troff. It can be compiled using the Makefile, or make.sh. A table of
+contents has been generated using pdftocgen, it is embedded into the pdf, most pdf readers have
+a button to open it (firefox has it in the top left, in zathura press tab to view it).
+
+A note on formating of the roff, the text is limited to 100 characters per line and is writen in plan
+ascii, no utf8 emojis and the like. code snippets are left in plain text, and the full section of 
+code they are from should be linked above them; assuming they are from a file and not a small
+example. Any comments on code snippets will be removed for the sake of readability in the roff 
+document, however the can still be found in the raw files.
+
+.NH 1
 Analysis
 .NH 2
 The current problem
@@ -35,44 +52,36 @@ debugging tools.
 The goal of Zippy is to make codding easier, while remaining fast, with a interpreter writen in C.
 
 .NH 2
-Clients
-.PP
-In a project of this nature, the Client is every programmer alive; which is a pretty large scope. 
-To narrow this down as much as possible, I will interview a small handful of people throughout the 
-project, of different skill levels.
-
+What is a programming language
 .NH 3
-Client 1, Amy C
+A very simple explanation
 .PP
-My first client is a friend of mine, Amy C, she is a confident programmer who has completed many 
-complicated projects. I am choosing her as a client as she can give me technical feed back on my 
-project and its function/utility.
+At its lowest definition a PL is a set of specific words, that when given to a computer in the 
+right order have a reproducible behaviour. A more human way of saying that, would be its how we
+control computers.
 .NH 3
-Client 2, a technical user, but not a programmer
+Why are there so many
 .PP
-some stuff about this person.
-.NH 3
-Client 3, a normie
-.PP
-some stuff about how the normie finds the completed project.
-.NH 3
-Client 4, myself
-.PP
-I've wanted to take out a project like this for a long long time, and this is the perfect 
-opportunity to do so, I will be assessing myself along the way of this, building the project to my 
-personal specification.
+When someone is looking at code it can often be seen as just that, however there are hundreds of 
+languages that all take the idea of "code" in very different ways. Some are designed for specific 
+hardware, some are designed for making general use programs while others are highly specialized.
+It is important to see "code", as more than just one overarching term and instead see where the code
+is being used, and evaluate it from that.
+
 
 .NH 2
-Examples of similar projects
-.PP
-As Zippy will be interpreted, I should compare it to other such languages; trying to compare it to 
-C++/rust/go, isn't helpful as they are so very different in the way they function.
+Researching, and getting a scope of the project
+.PP 
+Before I start to design a language i should first find examples of others and find what i want my
+language to be like.
 
-Zippy is by far not the first language, and I'm only one person, so I can't expect to beat others in 
-everything. 
+I'd like my language to feel modern so i should take inspiration from what other modern languages
+do, however on the backed i want my language to be stable and fast, for that i should look at 
+older projects.
 
-Below are a few languages that zippy should be compared to throught developemen:
 .NH 3
+Examples of older similar projects, that are a good base for my language
+.NH 4
 Python
 .PP
 Python is a high level OOP language that was designed in 1991. It was made to make programming easy 
@@ -81,20 +90,21 @@ cases, it is slow and inefficient, and very bloated.
 
 https://www.python.org/
 
-Zippy should take pythons high level abstractions, as they make programing very easy and it should 
-try and take notes from its libaries as they are mostly well writen, and well documented.
-.NH 3
+Zippy should take pythons high level abstractions, as they make programming very easy and it should 
+try and take notes from its libraries as they are mostly well written, and well documented.
+.NH 4
 Lisp
 .PP
 Lisp is the second ever programming language, developed at MiT, it is the first functional language, 
 creating many common features like higher order functions, recursion, and garbage collection. It is 
-generally not used anymore as it feels old compared to other functional languages, like ocaml or haskell.
+generally not used any more as it feels old compared to other functional languages, like Ocaml or 
+Haskell.
 
 https://lisp-lang.org/
 
 Zippy should try to take alot from the syntax of lisp, () make it easy to see what parts of code 
 will effect what, and make things easy to parse.
-.NH 3
+.NH 4
 Perl
 .PP
 Perl is scripting language designed for use in linux, when bash is too slow, or not suited for the 
@@ -103,10 +113,90 @@ Its syntax is quite strange however and it is slow. Making it poorly suited towa
 
 https://www.perl.org/
 
-Zippy should take from perls minimalisum, it is a small language that is of a similar size to bash 
+Zippy should take from perls minimalism, it is a small language that is of a similar size to bash 
 or zsh, while feeling closer to python. If zippy can achieve a similar small size, while remaining 
 powerful I will be happy.
 
+.NH 3
+Examples of new similar projects that are also a good base
+.NH 4
+Gleam
+.PP
+Gleam is a modern language releasing in the past 5 years. It is highly functional, with no mutable
+data, no traditional loops. Instead recursion can be used to replace alot of these features. 
+Gleam compiles to erlang/Beam bytecode, much like java to the jvm, and doing this has made Gleam
+a highly scalable language with good library support out the box.
+
+https://gleam.run/
+
+Zippy should take from the functional elements of Gleam, as they keep programs safer, however Zippy
+should not remove all procedural elements, as for loops are very helpful
+.NH 4
+Haskell
+.PP
+Haskell is another modern functional language known for being very complicated, however incredibly
+powerful. Its syntax feels very mathematical, and incredibly terse.
+
+https://www.haskell.org/
+
+Perhaps Zippy could learn from Haskell, as it provides functional and procedural elements, making it
+a well rounded language
+.NH 4
+Hare
+.PP
+Hare was designed to be a 100 year language, and thus stability is its main goal, it is not set to 
+have a syntax change any time soon, and it has strong emphasis on memory safety. It fits into the 
+same part of the tech stack as C, and thus it can be used for some very low level work.
+
+https://harelang.org/
+
+I think Zippy should have a strong emphasis on stability, to many times have i segfaulted do to a
+tiny mistake. Zippy should also look to Hare small size, you can buy a copy of Hare on a 
+.B "SINGLE 3 1/2'' FLOPPY"
+
+.NH 3
+What should be taken away from these languages?
+.PP
+I was already leaning towards functional programming when I started this project however now I 
+believe it's the only option for producing safe applications. Zippy will be a functional language
+with a strong emphasis on recursion.
+
+I also believe that I should take size of the interpreter into account, as this is important for 
+keeping the project manageable and consistent.
+
+And finally I think that syntax should be inspired by Lisp, although Lisp itself can be a messy
+language, with the right changes I am confident that I can make a attractive language for the 21st
+century.
+
+.NH 2
+Clients
+.PP
+In a project of this nature, the Client is every programmer alive; which is a pretty large scope. 
+To narrow this down as much as possible, I will interview a small handful of people throughout the 
+project, of different skill levels.
+
+.NH 3
+Client 1, Amy C
+.PP
+My first client is a friend of mine, Amy C, she is a confident programmer who has completed many 
+complicated projects. I am choosing her as a client as she can give me technical feed back on my 
+project and its function/utility.
+.NH 3
+Client 2, a technical user, but not a programmer
+.PP
+some stuff about this person.
+.NH 3
+Client 3, a normie
+.PP
+some stuff about how the normie finds the completed project.
+.NH 3
+Client 4, myself
+.PP
+I've wanted to take out a project like this for a long long time, and this is the perfect 
+opportunity to do so, I will be assessing myself along the way of this, building the project to my 
+personal specification.
+
+
 .NH 2
 Questionnaires
 .PP
@@ -119,7 +209,7 @@ In the section bellow you will find questionnaires from the analyses stage of my
 Questionnaire 1 for Amy C  
 
 .BI "[30th April 2024]"
-.BI "answered by amy, see pull request she left"
+.BI "answered by Amy, see pull request she left"
 .NH 4 
 What do you find the most important in a language? (eg: speed, readability)
 .PP
@@ -183,7 +273,8 @@ bundler should be a priority, perhaps they could be written in Zippy after the i
 .NH 3 
 The first elements of the project
 .PP
-At this stage I can say that I'm confident in my project and its scope. I have a goal in mind for it.
+At this stage I can say that I'm confident in my project and its scope. I have a goal in mind for 
+it.
 
 .B "The key things to take away from this section are:"
 
@@ -298,6 +389,8 @@ into an abstract syntax tree, and finally it executes it. This is just a simple
 it is small in scope. It can only do simple operators (+-*/) and requires litteral values to be 
 surrounded by [] so it knows its not another expression to evaluate.
 
+https://github.com/standenboy/school/tree/master/comp/lucas-standen-NEA/code/proto/ast
+
 
 typedef struct ast_node ast_node;
 
@@ -342,6 +435,8 @@ Then I can execute that node and work my way up the tree.
 
 The execution code can be seen here.
 
+https://github.com/standenboy/school/tree/master/comp/lucas-standen-NEA/code/proto/ast
+
 
 int exec(ast_node *exp){