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diff --git a/Readme.md b/Readme.md index ccbae997..b139eaec 100644 --- a/Readme.md +++ b/Readme.md @@ -78,36 +78,17 @@ In this quest, Mu is currently experimenting with the following mechanisms: enabling more peripheral features. Think of it as a cleaned-up `git log` for the project. ([More information.](http://akkartik.name/post/wart-layers)) -You can see these mechanisms in action below in the context of a platform for -teaching programming 1:1. It allows students to spin up a fake screen, -keyboard, file system and network neighborhood in tests. The Basic-like -Assembly language of the Mu VM is as powerful as C for low-level pointer -operations and manual memory management, but much safer, paying some run-time -checking overhead to validate pointers. It is as powerful as high-level -languages (providing strong type safety, general lexical scope, generic types, -higher-order functions and delimited continuations) but should be easier to -write a compiler for since it gives up some expressiveness by not allowing -recursive expressions. It is also *more* expressive than conventional -high-level languages in some ways: Literate Programming turns out to be a -great fit for a statement-oriented language, and labels make great [join points](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Join_point). - -Balancing these strengths, however, Mu is currently interpreted and slow. Too -slow for graphics or sound, among other things. Rather than try to build a -compiler for it, our next milestone is to "backport" the lessons of Mu back to -a real-world unix-like system: OpenBSD, a reasonable compromise between the -complexity (*ahem* bloat) of GNU and the over-simplification of -[xv6](https://github.com/mit-pdos/xv6-public). The goal is to continue to have -a self-contained, self-hosting system without external dependencies as we add -support for new kinds of tests. The goal is explicitly *not* to blindly -reimplement our Basic-like language atop OpenBSD, or to port the OpenBSD -sources to our language. Instead, we will modify the C compiler to provide -some of the greater safety we prototyped here, and make use of it in the -OpenBSD sources. - -Things are pretty open-ended right now as we learn about OpenBSD, so the -action will mostly be on the [wiki](https://github.com/akkartik/mu/wiki) for -some time to come. This project is still very much active, though. Questions, -bug reports and Pull Requests will be promptly addressed. +These mechanisms exist in the context of a low-level statement-oriented +language (like Basic, or Assembly). The language is as powerful as C for +low-level pointer operations and manual memory management, but much safer, +paying some run-time overhead to validate pointers. It also provides a number +of features usually associated with higher-level languages: strong +type-safety, lexical scope, generic functions, higher-order functions, +delimited continuations. + +Mu is currently interpreted and too slow for graphics or sound. We're +actively investigating ways to speed it up. In the meantime, Kartik uses it to +teach programming 1-on-1 with the motto, "teach testing before syntax." *Taking Mu for a spin* @@ -119,7 +100,7 @@ versions, compilers or processors. [](https://travis-ci.org/akkartik/mu) -Running Mu will always recompile it if necessary: +Running Mu will always (re)compile it if necessary: ```shell $ cd mu @@ -130,8 +111,8 @@ As a simple example, here's a program with some arithmetic: <img alt='code example' src='html/example1.png'> -As stated before, Mu functions are lists of instructions, one to a line. Each -instruction operates on some *ingredients* and returns some *products*. +Mu functions are lists of instructions, one to a line. Each instruction +operates on some *ingredients* and returns some *products*. ``` [products] <- instruction [ingredients] @@ -418,6 +399,9 @@ c) Try running the tests: $ ./mu test ``` +d) The largest app built so far with Mu is [the editor I use to teach +programming with](https://github.com/akkartik/mu/tree/master/edit#readme). + **Credits** Mu builds on many ideas that have come before, especially: |