Updated TODO file

TODO.md

@@ -1,4 +1,12 @@
-# Plan of attack
+# Immediate TODOs / General Code Cleanup
+
+## Symbols
+
+* the symbol table should probably *only* be for global definitions (maybe rename it to reflect this?)
+* dealing with variable lookup w/in functions/closures should probably happen in AST -> ReducedAST
+    * b/c that's where we go from a string name to a canonical ID (for e.g. 2nd param in 3rd enclosing scope)
+
+* Old notes on a plan of attack:
 
 1. modify visitor so it can handle scopes
   -this is needed both to handle import scope correctly
@@ -6,66 +14,61 @@
 
 2. Once FQSNs are aware of function parameters, most of the Rc<String> things in eval.rs can go away
 
-# TODO items
+## Parser
+* I think I can restructure the parser to get rid of most instances of expect!, at least at the beginning of a rule
 
--use 'let' sigil in patterns for variables :
+## Typechecking
+
+* make a type to represent types rather than relying on string comparisons
+* look at https://rickyhan.com/jekyll/update/2018/05/26/hindley-milner-tutorial-rust.html
+
+## General code cleanup
+* standardize on an error type that isn't String
+* implement a visitor pattern for the use of scope_resolver
+  * maybe implement this twice: 1) the value-returning, no-default one in the haoyi blogpost,
+  * look at
+    * https://gitlab.haskell.org/ghc/ghc/wikis/pattern-synonyms
+    * the non-value-returning, default one like in rustc (cf. https://github.com/rust-unofficial/patterns/blob/master/patterns/visitor.md)
+
+
+# Longer-term Ideas
+
+## Language Syntax
+
+* the `type` declaration should have some kind of GADT-like syntax
+* use `let` sigil to indicate a variable in a pattern explicitly:
 
 ```
   q is MyStruct(let a, Chrono::Trigga) then {
+    // a is in scope here
 
   }
 ```
 
--idea: what if there was something like React jsx syntas built in? i.e. a way to automatically transform some kind of markup
+* if you have a pattern-match where one variant has a variable and the other
-into a function call, cf. `<h1 prop="arg">` ->  h1(prop=arg)
+  lacks it instead of treating this as a type error, promote the bound variable
+  to an option type
 
-## General code cleanup
+* what if there was something like React jsx syntas built in? i.e. a way to
-- I think I can restructure the parser to get rid of most instances of expect!, at least at the beginning of a rule
+  automatically transform some kind of markup into a function call, cf. `<h1
-DONE -experiment with storing metadata via ItemIds on AST nodes (cf. https://rust-lang.github.io/rustc-guide/hir.html, https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/src/librustc/hir/mod.rs )
+  prop="arg">` ->  h1(prop=arg)
--implement and test open/use statements
--implement field access
-- standardize on an error type that isn't String
--implement a visitor pattern for the use of scope_resolver
-  - maybe implement this twice: 1) the value-returning, no-default one in the haoyi blogpost,
-  -look at https://gitlab.haskell.org/ghc/ghc/wikis/pattern-synonyms
-                                2) the non-value-returning, default one like in rustc (cf. https://github.com/rust-unofficial/patterns/blob/master/patterns/visitor.md)
 
--parser error - should report subset of AST parsed *so far*
+* implement and test open/use statements
-  - what if you used python 'def' syntax to define a function? what error message makes sense here?
 
-## Reduction
+* Include extensible scala-style `html"string ${var}"` string interpolations
- - make a good type for actual language builtins to avoid string comparisons
 
-## Typechecking
+* A neat idea for pattern matching optimization would be if you could match on
-
+  one of several things in a list
-- make a type to represent types rather than relying on string comparisons
-
-- look at https://rickyhan.com/jekyll/update/2018/05/26/hindley-milner-tutorial-rust.html
-
-- cf. the notation mentioned in the cardelli paper, the debug information for the `typechecking` pass should 
-print the generated type variable for every subexpression in an expression
-
-- think about idris-related ideas of multiple implementations of a type for an interface (+ vs * impl for monoids, for preorder/inorder/postorder for Foldable)
-
--should have an Idris-like `cast To From` function
-
-## Schala-lang syntax
-
--idea: the `type` declaration should have some kind of GADT-like syntax
-
-- Idea: if you have a pattern-match where one variant has a variable and the other lacks it
-instead of treating this as a type error, promote the bound variable to an option type
-
-- Include extensible scala-style html"string ${var}" string interpolations
-
-- A neat idea for pattern matching optimization would be if you could match on one of several things in a list
 ex:
-```if x {
+```
+if x {
  is (comp, LHSPat, RHSPat) if comp in ["==, "<"] -> ...
-}```
+}
+```
 
-- Schala should have both currying *and* default arguments!
+* Schala should have both currying *and* default arguments!
-```fn a(b: Int, c:Int, d:Int = 1) -> Int
+```
+fn a(b: Int, c:Int, d:Int = 1) -> Int
     a(1,2) : Int
     a(1,2,d=2): Int
     a(_,1,3) : Int -> Int
@@ -73,35 +76,47 @@ ex:
     a(_,_,_) : Int -> Int -> Int -> Int
 ```
 
-- scoped types - be able to define a quick enum type scoped to a function or other type for
+* scoped types - be able to define a quick enum type scoped to a function or other type for
   something, that only is meant to be used as a quick bespoke interface between
   two other things
 
+
 ex.
-```type enum {
+```
+type enum {
   type enum MySubVariant {
     SubVariant1, SubVariant2, etc.
     }
  Variant1(MySubVariant),
  Variant2(...),
- }```
+ }
+```
+
+* inclusive/exclusive range syntax like .. vs ..=
+
+
+## Typechecking
+
+* cf. the notation mentioned in the cardelli paper, the debug information for the `typechecking` pass should
+    * print the generated type variable for every subexpression in an expression
+* think about idris-related ideas of multiple implementations of a type for an interface (+ vs * impl for monoids, for preorder/inorder/postorder for Foldable)
+* should have an Idris-like `cast To From` function
+
+* something like the swift `Never` type ( https://nshipster.com/never/ ) in the stdlib
 
-- inclusive/exclusive range syntax like .. vs ..=
 
 ## Compilation
--look into Inkwell for rust LLVM bindings
+* look into Inkwell for rust LLVM bindings
+* https://cranelift.readthedocs.io/en/latest/?badge=latest<Paste>
 
--https://cranelift.readthedocs.io/en/latest/?badge=latest<Paste>
+* look at https://gluon-lang.org/doc/nightly/book/embedding-api.html
 
 
-## Other links of note
+# Syntax Playground
-
-- https://nshipster.com/never/
--consult http://gluon-lang.org/book/embedding-api.html
-
 
 ## Trying if-syntax again
 
+```
 //simple if expr
 if x == 10 then "a" else "z"
 
@@ -132,7 +147,7 @@ if x {
  is Person(_, age) if age > 13 then "barmitzvah'd"
  else "foo"
  }
-
+```
 
 
 ## (OLD) Playing around with conditional syntax ideas