(ns language.grammar.syntax)
every programming language goes into at least one step between reading
and actually running where the program or funcitonality is represented by an AST.
such structure is usually very different from the language itself,
but on lisps, it is pretty close, when not the same!
just as german puts the verb always on the second position,
in clojure we always put it at the beginning:
println is the verb, is what we are doing, rest is just args
commas are whitespace in clojure but you can add if you feel it makes it easier to read
(println "some", "other", [:args, not, :care])
* (times/multiplication/product) is the verb, rest a bunch of numbers
(* 2 3 4 5)
the square brackets are like a sugar for the vector function
(= (vector 1 2 3) [1 2 3])
so it gets pretty consistent and easy to spot patterns!
definitons are not special syntax
(def age 21) (def cats ["🐈" "🐈⬛"]) (defn pet [cat] "😻")
if behaves as a funciton of 3 args, no special syntax
(if (> 18 age) :cant-drink, :get-me-a-beer!)
for is just a macro, takes 2 args (a vector with even number of elements, and a list) and does what you expect it to
(for [cat cats] (pet cat))
though you would more commonly see:
(map pet cats)
now that we kinda know which part does what, time to learn some vocabulary!