Expressions

Those who have seen an ML-based language before will find Kuljet's expression syntax familiar ground, and can probably skip to the next section.

Literals

Expressions can be literals, such as "string" or 123.

Construct lists square brackets, like [ 1, 2, 3 ].

Construct records with curly brackets, like { a = 1, b = 2 }.

P.S. Access values of a record with a dot: record.field.

Function Application

Unlike C-style languages, function application does not require parentheses. Given a function a which takes two integers and returns an integer (i.e. type int -> int -> int), then a 1 2 calls that function with arguments 1 and 2.

Functions are partially applied, so a 1 gives a function of type int -> int, and (a 1) 2 is the same as a 1 2.

Use parentheses for nested application e.g. a (a 1 2) 2.

Let

Introduce names for expressions by using let.

let |name| = |expression| in |expression|

e.g.

let x = 1 in x + x

Functions

Write functions with the fun keyword:

fun |var| -> |expression|

You will sometimes need to provide the type of the function argument using a type annotation:

fun |var|: |type| -> |expression|

Binary Operators

Operate on numbers with +, -, * and /.

Compare with =, <, >, <= and >=.

Combine Boolean values with and and or.

Concatenate text with ||.

1 <= 2 and (3 = 3 + 1 or 3 = 3)

If expression

if expressions are written:

if |condition| then |expression| else |expression|

Unlike C-style languages, they are expressions not statements.

Then expression

A then expression is written:

|expression| [as |name|] then |expression|

where the first expression has type io. The then expression evaluates the IO action, optionally binding the result to |name|.