Overview

Archetype is a C-style (curly brace) functional, object-oriented (class-based), metaprogramming-capable .NET language with features and syntax borrowed from many languages, as well as some new constructs. A major design goal is to succinctly and elegantly implement common patterns that normally require a lot of boilerplate code which can be difficult, error-prone, or just plain tedious to write.

Archetype Language Articles

Part 1 – Properties and fields, function syntax, the me keyword

Part 2 – Start function, named and anonymous delegates, delegate duck typing, bindable properties, composite bindings, binding expressions, namespace imports, string concatenation

Part 3 – Exception handling, local variable definition, namespace imports, aliases, iteration (loop, fork-join, while, unless), calling functions and delegates asynchronously, messages

Part 4 – Conditional selection (if), pattern matching, regular expression literals, agents, classes and traits

Part 5 – Type extensions, custom control structures

Part 6 – If expressions, enumerations, nullable types, tuples, streams, list comprehensions, subrange types, type constraint expressions

Language Design Articles

Language Design: Complexity, Extensibility, and Intention

... more to come soon.

Status

The first alpha-quality parser and compiler will be available by the end of June, 2010.