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    Fennel 0.2.0 released ☶ show compilers lisp release lists.sr.ht
    technomancy avatar via technomancy 4 years ago |
    Archive.org Archive.today Ghostarchive
    | 9 comments

Several interesting new features landed here, including pattern matching, quote/backtick, k/v destructuring, and a simpler way to define macros.

I’m one of the lead devs for the Fennel project; happy to answer any questions!

Edit: a link to the main site might be helpful too: https://fennel-lang.org

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    feoh avatar feoh 4 years ago | link

    I notice you can use Fellel with tic-80. Very cool, I love that project! Definitely intend to do some hacking on that when I finally get my Clockwork Pi gameshell!

    Maybe fennel will be the excuse I need to learn a Lisp like language :)

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      Turtles avatar Turtles 4 years ago | link

      Are there any examples of a project written in Fennel? Maybe a video game mod that leverages the existing Lua interface?

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        technomancy avatar technomancy 4 years ago | link

        Yeah, there are several examples listed on the Fennel wiki: https://github.com/bakpakin/Fennel/wiki

        Games tend to dominate (especially love2d games) but there is also an IRC bot, text editor, web site, etc.

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        zxtx avatar zxtx 4 years ago | link

        How does Fennel compare with something like Terra http://terralang.org?

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          technomancy avatar technomancy 4 years ago | link

          My understanding is that Terra is a replacement for Lua, (both the compiler and the VM). Existing programs which currently embed Lua would need to be adapted to support the Terra runtime.

          Fennel is a compiler that emits Lua code, and the compiler is implemented in Lua. This means that any existing program that embeds any version of Lua can run the Fennel compiler, or you can compile your Fennel codebase to Lua and run that on existing programs without them being made aware of Fennel at all. It’s much more broadly applicable.

          (Also there are the obvious differences like Fennel is a lisp and Terra is more algol-ish.)

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            zxtx avatar zxtx 4 years ago | link

            That clarifies things a lot. I know you can mix Terra and Lua within code but it helps to understand where you see the software fitting in.

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              technomancy avatar technomancy 4 years ago | link

              Terra also lets you do metaprogramming with Lua, though I think the lisp model is a lot simpler and more consistent for metaprogramming. But Terra probably makes it a bit easier to drop to very-low-level code in the rare occasions where LuaJIT can’t optimize enough on its own.

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          telent avatar telent 4 years ago | link

          Awesome, I’m very much looking forward to playing with k-v destructuring in fenestra

          Is there a simple example of how to write a macro? I did check the web site, honest, though I may have missed it.

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            technomancy avatar technomancy 4 years ago | link

            The require-macros form is documented in the reference: https://fennel-lang.org/reference

            but I realized that the newer macros form for putting them inline isn’t mentioned there yet; you’ll need to consult the test suite for an example: https://github.com/bakpakin/Fennel/blob/master/test.lua#L258