README.md

An experimental language for exploring the practical applications of two level type theory.

Discussion takes place on the r/ProgrammingLanguages Discord server in the #peridot channel.

References and Inspiration

• REFERENCES.md: A list of prior art that have influenced Peridot's design and implementation in major ways

Information

• RATIONALE.md: An in-depth explanation of Peridot's design rationale
• OLD_VS_NEW.md: A comparison of Peridot and Konna, a previous project of mine also based on 2LTT

Introduction

Peridot is a functional/logic language based on 2LTT (two level type theory). It uses a logic language for the meta level, which allows for domain specific, declarative optimizers to be written entirely in userspace - writers of optimizers can focus on purely on the optimizations themselves. Meanwhile, the object language is high-level, dependently typed, and functional. Here's a very simple example of optimizing arithmetic:

-- optimize `x * 2` to `x << 1`
optimize {~x * 2} {~y << 1} :- optimize x y.

-- optimize `x * y / y` to `x`
optimize {(~x * ~y) / ~y} {~z} :- optimize x z.

-- optimize both sides of a division
optimize {~x / ~y} {~z / ~w} :-
  optimize x z,
  optimize y w.

optimize {~x} {~x} :- int_literal x.

main =
    -- c = {3}, c = {(3 << 1) / 2}
    let optimize {(3 * 2) / 2} c
    -- 3
    in print ~(select smallest c)