lisp-dojo

= Lisp dojo

This is a coding exercise designed to introduce you to writing a programming language. It contains Cucumber tests that guide you through building a simple Lisp-like interpreter with the following features:

• Boolean and numeric literals
• User-defined variables
• Arithmetic functions
• Conditional logic
• User-defined first-class functions
• Lexical closures

To get started, check out a copy and run

bundle install

Then run the first set of tests:

rake step[1]

This will give you a bunch of failing tests. It is your job to fix the tests, commit your code, and move on to the next step. There are 10 steps, and the rake task runs all the tests up to the current step to make sure you don't break anything as you progress.

The exercise is focused on interpretation, not parsing. A parser (based on Citrus) is provided, and it is up to you to add meaning to the parse tree by interpreting it.

You can interact with the language as you build it up by running bin/lisp, which drops you into a REPL where you can execute expressions in the language.