𓆤 Wasp : Wasm Programming Language

Wasp is a new unified notation for both markup/object data and code.
Wasp is the foundation layer of the higher order programming language angle.

«Data is Code and Code is Data»

Wasp Syntax

For example, an HTML registration form:

<form>
  <!--comment-->
  <div class="form-group">
    <label for="email">Email address:</label>
    <input type="email" id="email">
  </div>
  <button class='btn btn-info'>Submit</button>
</form>

Can be represented in Wasp as:

form{                                 
  //comment                          
  div{ class:"form-group"             
    label{ for:email                  
      "Email address:"                
    }
    input{ type:email id:email}     
  }
  button{ class:['btn' 'btn-info']  
    'Submit'                        
  }
}

Html is just an arbitrary example of structured data, wasp can represent any data, like json, xml, yaml, s-expressions... The difference from passive data is that Wasp is fully typed and also used for active data, such as code.

Online Demo

wasp.pannous.com

Runtime

The wasp runtime is available as

• native binary for Mac, Linux and Windows
• small standalone webassembly file (~50kb), with or without
• a wasm compiler (~100kb) in wasm:

Angle Language

Angle is a new Programming Language using Wasp as data format,
"Lisp with Hashes" and optional braces.

Hello World in Angle is
"Hello World"

The deep formal reason why this is a valid program is that the last object in a block is its return value
and the last result in the root block of the main file is printed.

Fibonacci in Angle is

fibonacci number = if number<2 : 1 else fibonacci(number - 1) + fibonacci it - 2

Note how number simulataneously acts as type and variable name.
Note how the unique argument number can be accessed via it keyword and some brackets are optional

Auto typed fibonacci in Angle is

fib := if it<2 : 1 else fib(it-1) + fib it - 2

Angle runs as wasm file inside browsers an as small lambdas in edge computing. Angle programms compiled to wasm, which dont make use of the standard api can be extremely small <1kb, just like handwritten wast but with much more comfort.

built-in linker

Like in swift, all files within the source file's directory are parsed and available without extra use / include keyword. However other projects and source files can be included dynamically or statically aot at compile time.

built-in component model

The webassembly component model is a first class citizen of angle: wit files and syntax can be included directly:

flags virtues{ 
  fast
  safe
}

wasp virtues  = fast + safe

No need for any bindgen, unless interfacing with components of other languages. In fact we hope to promote wit to a universal header file format.

Wasp and Angle are free of dependencies (other than gcc, if the runtime is to be compiled from scratch). Only some optional features can make use of external dependencies:

The natives runtimes can be configured to ship with a JIT wasm runtime (wasmtime, wasmedge, wasm3, wasmer, wasm-micro-runtime and V8!)

The native Wasp/Angle binary contains a small WebView connector making use of the host's browser component (Edge or WebKit). Since the Angle language can be compiled from wasm to wasm, this gives a whole self sufficient programming environment in less than 200kb,
with similar power to electron and QT.

Note: The full wasp_compiler.wasm is currently 2MB but can be shrunk back close to the 70kb of wasp_runtime.wasm once the lazy external references are removed again.

Until a smart way is found to write directly to the WebViews canvas, native angle ships with a low overhead graphics adapter (using SDL) for fast fullscreen painting in native wasp bundles.

Documentation

• Syntax specification
• Features
• Inventions
• Examples

Wasp Data Model

Wasp, is a new unified notation for both object and markup data. The notation is a superset of what can be represented by JSON, HTML and XML, but overcomes many limitations these popular data formats, yet still having a very clean syntax and simple data model.

• It has clean syntax with fully-type data model (like JSON or even better)
• It is generic and extensible (like XML or even better)
• It has built-in mixed content support (like HTML5 or even better)
• It supports high-order composition (like S-expression or even better)

	Wasp/Mark	JSON	HTML	XML	S-expr	YAML
Clean syntax	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	yes
Fully-typed	yes	yes	no	no	yes	yes
Generic	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	yes
Mixed content support	yes	hard	yes	yes	hard	hard
High-order composition	yes	possible	no	yes	yes	possible
Wide adoption	not yet	yes	yes	yes	limited	limited

Wasp has a simple and fully-typed data model.

Documentation

• Data model
• FAQ
• Examples