Lambda the Ultimate

After reading LtU for several years, I am ready to (tentatively) announce a (partial) release of my first programming language that I hope others to use. I am also hoping to get some feedback from those more knowledgable than I am.

WebFu is a framework that a friend and I are developing as part of our startup. It is primarily focused on PHP 5 right now, but it is applicable to web development in general, and since it is based around several compilers for several lightweight DSL's, it would be relatively easy to target other languages.

The first component we're releasing is a tool for processing and mapping querystrings and forms to user methods with a role based security system to provide a "80%" solution to simplify security auditing.

While I haven't investigated too deeply, our approach is reminiscent of Links and Google's Web Toolkit(although we were unaware of them when we started), however, I think our approach is a bit different because we're seeking to not "take over" the flow of the web app, but instead provide classes that can help provide convenient pieces of functionality.

Inform 7 is a radical revision of Graham Nelson's Inform language for interactive fiction (such as Zork). Whereas Inform 6 and its predecessors were (IMO) very low-level languages with a C-like syntax, Inform 7 is a relational language based on natural language syntax and a semantics based on predicate logic. Nelson describes Inform 7 in his usual erudite style, in:

Graham Nelson. Natural Language, Semantic Analysis and Interactive Fiction. 2005.

The Inform 7 implementation comes with a slick graphical interface (currently available for Mac OS X and Windows), and adopts the metaphor of a book, as indeed do aspects of the language itself.

Well worth taking a look at it.

(Credit to Peter J. Wasilko, from whose forum post on Human Factors I cherry-picked this link.)