Loop is like CoffeeScript?

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Ashwin Jayaprakash

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Jul 17, 2012, 5:28:51 PM7/17/12
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Loop looks a lot like CoffeeScript (http://coffeescript.org/). It would be nice if Loop could support CoffeeScript and just compile to Java instead of JavaScript.

Coffee is quite popular in the HTML5/Web community.

Ashwin.

Dave Newton

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Jul 17, 2012, 5:32:23 PM7/17/12
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On Tue, Jul 17, 2012 at 5:28 PM, Ashwin Jayaprakash <ashwin.ja...@gmail.com> wrote:
Loop looks a lot like CoffeeScript (http://coffeescript.org/). It would be nice if Loop could support CoffeeScript and just compile to Java instead of JavaScript.

I don't really see the similarity.

What would it mean for "Loop to support CoffeeScript", anyway?

Dave

Ashwin Jayaprakash

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Jul 17, 2012, 6:15:46 PM7/17/12
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Well, Coffee is a more concise version of JavaScript. Loop (to me) looks like a more concise version of Java (among other things).

The syntax also looks very similar and Coffee has a good user base. Some things that jumped up when I looked at the docs of both: 



Classes in Coffee:
class Animal
  constructor: (@name) ->

  move: (meters) ->
    alert @name + " moved #{meters}m."

class Snake extends Animal
  move: ->
    alert "Slithering..."
    super 5

class Horse extends Animal
  move: ->
    alert "Galloping..."
    super 45

sam = new Snake "Sammy the Python"
tom = new Horse "Tommy the Palomino"


Classes in Loop:


class Star ->
  name
  mass

Coffee closures:
Account = (customer, cart) ->
  @customer = customer
  @cart = cart

  $('.shopping_cart').bind 'click', (event) =>
    @customer.purchase @cart

new Star()

Loop closures:
main ->
  channel(@printer, print_message, {:}),
  @printer.send(i) for i in [1..10],
  @printer.send(-1)


Ashwin.

Dave Newton

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Jul 17, 2012, 6:22:35 PM7/17/12
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Based on this there are many languages that look like Loop, then, I guess.

I guess I don't classify CoffeeScript and Loop in the same family of languages.

I don't really get the "Loop support CoffeeScript" part; Loop compiles to bytecode. Are you asking for another back-end that supports a different VM?

Dhanji R. Prasanna

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Jul 17, 2012, 6:25:59 PM7/17/12
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Loop is functional like Lisp or Erlang (actually Loop borrows the '->' from erlang), so it would basically be a whole rewrite to change the semantics to understand coffeescript. If you want to borrow some of the tools from Loop to create a "CoffeeScript for Java" then go for it!

Dhanji.

Dave Newton

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Jul 17, 2012, 6:28:18 PM7/17/12
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I think xtend [1] or mirah [2] would be the closest analogs.

Plus since CoffeeScript compiles to JavaScript, you can already run it on the JVM via Rhino.

Dave

ses

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Jul 19, 2012, 4:30:55 AM7/19/12
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On Tuesday, 17 July 2012 22:28:51 UTC+1, Ashwin Jayaprakash wrote:
It would be nice if Loop could support CoffeeScript and just compile to Java instead of JavaScript.

In a sense, Loop itself does compile to Java as it runs on the JVM, it just does this at runtime, whereas AFAIK CoffeeScript is compiled to JavaScript prior to runtime. You can use compiled Loop programs from within Java if this is what you are after.
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