[Haskell] ANNOUNCE: Introducing Sifflet, visual functional programming language

Gregory D. Weber gdweber at iue.edu
Thu May 13 21:50:58 EDT 2010


Introducing Sifflet -- version 0.1.5, first public release!

Sifflet is a visual, functional programming language. 
Sifflet programmers define functions by drawing diagrams.
Sifflet shows how a function call is evaluated on the diagram.
It is intended as an aid for learning about recursion.

*   A picture explains Sifflet better than words:
    please see the screenshot showing how to evaluate 3!:
    http://mypage.iu.edu/~gdweber/software/sifflet/home.html

*   Features:
    -   Visual editor.
    -   Visual tracer/debugger which shows how function calls are
        evaluated -- including recursive calls, of course.
        -- This is an active learning process: Sifflet doesn't
        overwhelm students with a huge trace of function calls;
        it provides only as much expansion as the student
        requests.
    -   Extensive tutorial with 6,348 words and 31 pictures -- 
        so hey, it's worth 37,348 words!  (but not 37,348! words)
    -   Number, string, and list data types.
    -   Palette with a small number of primitive functions.
    -   Runnable examples of compound functions.

*   Download:
    http://hackage.haskell.org/package/sifflet

*   Home page:
    http://mypage.iu.edu/~gdweber/software/sifflet/home.html

*   Tutorial:
    http://mypage.iu.edu/~gdweber/software/sifflet/doc/tutorial.html

-- 
   ___   ___  __     _      
  / _ \ / _ \| |    | |     Gregory D. Weber, Associate Professor
 / /_\// / | | | /\ | |     Indiana University East
/ /_\\/ /__| | |/  \| |     http://mypage.iu.edu/~gdweber/
\____/\_____/\___/\__/      Tel. (765) 973-8420; FAX (765) 973-8550


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