https://github.com/disco-lang/disco
Functional teaching language for use in a discrete mathematics course
https://github.com/disco-lang/disco
discrete-mathematics functional-programming programming-language teaching
Last synced: 4 months ago
JSON representation
Functional teaching language for use in a discrete mathematics course
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/disco-lang/disco
- Owner: disco-lang
- License: other
- Created: 2016-06-09T13:51:41.000Z (over 9 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2024-08-15T05:26:26.000Z (about 1 year ago)
- Last Synced: 2024-08-21T00:29:06.030Z (about 1 year ago)
- Topics: discrete-mathematics, functional-programming, programming-language, teaching
- Language: TeX
- Homepage:
- Size: 19.3 MB
- Stars: 158
- Watchers: 6
- Forks: 22
- Open Issues: 51
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
- Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
- License: LICENSE
- Code of conduct: CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
[](https://travis-ci.org/disco-lang/disco)
[](CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md)
Disco is a programming language intended to teach basic functional
programming principles in the context of a discrete mathematics
course.
**If you are a student sent here to install Disco on your computer**,
[see the instructions below](https://github.com/disco-lang/disco#building-disco)!
Design principles
-----------------
* Includes those features, and *only* those features, useful in the
context of a discrete math course. This is *not* intended to be a
general-purpose language.
* Syntax is as close to standard *mathematical* practice as possible,
to make it easier for mathematicians to pick up, and to reduce as
much as possible the incongruity between the language and the
mathematics being explored and modeled.
* Tooling, error messages, etc. are very important---the language
needs to be accessible to undergrads with no prior programming
experience. (However, this principle is, as of yet, only
that---there is no tooling or nice error messages to speak of.)
Feel free to look around, ask questions, etc. You can also
[contribute](CONTRIBUTING.md)---collaborators are most welcome.
Community
---------
Check out the disco IRC channel, `#disco-lang` on Libera.Chat. If
you're not familiar with IRC, you can connect via [this web client](https://kiwiirc.com/nextclient/irc.libera.chat/?nick=Guest?#disco-lang).
Documentation
-------------
Documentation is [hosted on
readthedocs.io](http://disco-lang.readthedocs.io/en/latest/).
Contributing
------------
If you'd like to contribute to disco development, check out
[CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md).
Building disco
--------------
Scroll down to find the instructions appropriate to your OS!
Building disco on Windows
-------------------------
- Open a PowerShell terminal.
- Run the command `wsl --install`.
- Now type `wsl` to open a Windows Subsystem for Linux prompt.
- Paste this command:
```
sudo apt install build-essential curl libffi-dev libffi8 libgmp-dev libgmp10 libncurses-dev pkg-config
```
- Paste the following command:
```
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://get-ghcup.haskell.org | sh
```
- Keep hitting Enter to accept the defaults.
- Once it finishes, type the following commands:
```
sudo apt install zlib1g-dev
cabal update
cabal install disco
```
- If it works, you should be able to now type `disco` at a command
prompt, which should display a message like this:
```
Welcome to Disco!
A language for programming discrete mathematics.
Disco>
```
- See the [Troubleshooting](#troubleshooting) section below if you
have any issues.
Building disco on Mac OS / Linux
--------------------------------
- Open a terminal.
- Paste the following command:
```
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://get-ghcup.haskell.org | sh
```
- Keep hitting Enter to accept the defaults.
- Now run the following:
```
cabal update
cabal install disco
```
- If building fails with an error like `ghc: could not
execute: opt`, it means you need to install LLVM. The easiest
way to do this is to first [follow the instructions to install
Homebrew](https://brew.sh/) (if you don't already have it), and
then type
brew install llvm
at a terminal prompt.
- If this fails with an error like `Could not resolve HEAD to
a revision`, then try running these two commands at a
terminal prompt:
rm -rf $(brew --repo homebrew/core)
brew tap homebrew/core
Then re-run the `brew install llvm` command.
- After installing `llvm`, you may need to close and re-open
the terminal before running `cabal install disco` again.
- If it works, you should be able to now type `disco` at a command
prompt, which should display a message like this:
```
Welcome to Disco!
A language for programming discrete mathematics.
Disco>
```
- See the [Troubleshooting](#troubleshooting) section below if you
have any issues.
Troubleshooting
---------------
- If installation seems like it succeeded but the `disco` command is
not recognized, it may be an issue with your path environment
variable settings. Try running `disco` using an explicit path:
- `~/.cabal/bin/disco` on Linux, OSX, or WSL2
- `C:\cabal\bin\disco` on Windows
- If those don't work, poke around and see if you can figure
out where the `cabal/bin` folder is on your computer, and
run `disco` from there.
- If you wish, you may add the `cabal/bin` folder (wherever it is
located) to your `Path` (Windows) or `PATH` (Linux/OSX)
environment variable, so that you can run disco simply by typing
`disco`. However, this step is optional.
- On Windows, if disco crashes with an error about `foldr` after you
try to type anything (or if it simply closes the entire window when
you type anything), the problem is probably that you need to [enable
UTF-8 mode](https://github.com/disco-lang/disco/issues/253).
- Open a command prompt, and type
chcp 65001
- Now start `disco` as before (by typing `disco` or
`C:\cabal\bin\disco` or whatever worked).
- You will have to do this every time you run disco.
Alternatively, you can create a file called `disco.cmd`
containing those two commands, for example:
chcp 65001
C:\cabal\bin\disco
Now you can simply double-click on `disco.cmd` to run disco.
If you encounter any difficulties, please let me know --- either come
talk to me or [open a GitHub
issue](https://github.com/disco-lang/disco/issues/new). These
instructions will be kept up-to-date with whatever helpful tips or
workarounds I learn. So even if you encounter a difficulty but figure
out the solution youself, let me know --- that way I can include the
problem and solution here so others can benefit!