From d894dc1381a6e24e7fdd5c6d598665fb59a2c6d0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: aelred <aelred717@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2015 21:01:59 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Create README.md

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+# starling
+
+A pure and lazy functional language.
+
+## Getting started ##
+
+To install, run:
+
+    $ python setup.py install
+
+You can start the starling interpreter with the command:
+
+	$ starling
+
+## Examples ##
+
+You can do basic arithmetic (but no operator precedence yet):
+
+	>>> ((1 + 2) * 8) pow 2
+	576
+	>>> (702 / 2) mod 8
+	7
+
+Curried functions and list operations:
+
+	>>> map (*2) (range 0 10)
+	[0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18]
+	>>> sort [3, 1, 10]
+	[1, 3, 10]
+
+Infinite lists, nested scopes and functions/lambdas:
+	
+	>>> let is_odd = (x -> (x mod 2) != 0) in take 5 >> (filter is_odd) nats
+	[1, 3, 5, 7, 9]
+
+Concise, JSON-esque object definitions:
+
+	>>> shopping_list = [{name="eggs", price=2}, {name="milk", price=3}]
+	>>> eggs = shopping_list@0
+	>>> eggs.price
+	2
+	>>> eggs.name
+	eggs
+	>>> map (.name) shopping_list
+	["eggs", "milk"]
+
+Importing modules:
+
+	>>> re = import regex
+	>>> re.match "(mur)+" "murmurmurmur"
+	{match=True, rem=[], str="murmurmurmur"}
+
+## What's next? ##
+
+ - Compilation to LLVM
+ - Bootstrapping the compiler in Starling itself
+ - Introduce type inference
+ - Operator precedence
+ - Support for I/O and impure behaviour