README.md

Introduction

maryChain is a powerful programming language designed to meet modern programming needs. It combines characteristics from functional and object-oriented programming paradigms to create an expressive, dynamic, and powerful syntax. The language includes important features such as:

• Functions and lambdas
• Pipelining
• Binary operations
• Control structures (conditional and loops)
• Lazy evaluation
• Support for standard data types like numbers, strings, and booleans
• Type casting functions
• Support for modules and namespaces
• Support for comments

Main Features

Functions and Lambdas

Functions are first-class citizens in maryChain and can be declared using the def keyword. Lambda expressions, on the other hand, are represented by the LAMBDA keyword and allow for creating inline anonymous functions.

Pipelining

Pipelining is a feature that allows the output of one function to be directly fed as the input of the next. The PIPE symbol is used to represent this operation.

Binary Operations

Standard mathematical binary operations are supported, including addition (PLUS), subtraction (MINUS), multiplication (TIMES), and division (DIVIDE). Comparison operators are also supported, including equals (EQUALITY), greater than (GREATER), less than (LESS), greater or equal (GREATEREQUAL), and less or equal (LESSEQUAL).

Control Structures

Conditional structures like IF, THEN, ELSE, along with loops like WHILE DO, are provided in the maryChain language.

Lazy Evaluation

In maryChain, expressions can be declared as lazy, which means they are not evaluated until their result is needed.

Data Types

maryChain supports standard data types such as numbers, strings, and booleans.

Type Casting Functions

Type casting is supported through casting functions like INTEGERCAST, DOUBLECAST, STRINGCAST, BOOLEANCAST.

Support for Modules and Namespaces

maryChain provides support for modules and namespaces using IMPORT and NAMESPACE_OP features. This allows for better code organization and modular programming.

Comments

Comments in maryChain are supported, enabling developers to include explanations and documentation within the code itself.

BNF Grammar for maryChain

The BNF (Backus-Naur Form) grammar for maryChain can be inferred from the parser implementation and is as follows:

<program> ::= <import>* <expression>?
<import> ::= IMPORT <IDENTIFIER> AS <IDENTIFIER>
<expression> ::= <assignment> | <let_in> | <binop> | <uminus> | <paren_expression> | <term> 
<assignment> ::= <IDENTIFIER> EQUALS <expression>
<let_in> ::= LET <IDENTIFIER> EQUALS <expression> IN <expression>
<binop> ::= <expression> <bin_op> <expression>
<uminus> ::= MINUS <expression>
<paren_expression> ::= LPAREN <expression> RPAREN
<term> ::= <factor>
<factor> ::= NUMBER | STRING | BOOLEAN | <function_call> | <IDENTIFIER>
<function_call> ::= <IDENTIFIER> LPAREN <args> RPAREN
<args> ::= <arg>* 
<arg> ::= <expression>

This grammar represents the syntactic structure of a maryChain program. The keywords in the language are represented as they are, while in <bin_op>, <IDENTIFIER>, <args>, and <arg>, the angle brackets signify a category of symbol.

Please note that this is a simplified representation of the `mary

Chain` grammar for illustration purposes. In the actual parser, additional rules and constructs are included to handle precedence, associativity, and complex expressions.