Michael Homer
Interleaved 2D Notation for Concatenative Programs. https://mwh.nz/pubs/paint2022 I am presenting this in PAINT later today. Programs are laid out in a grid of alternating rows of function and stack value cells, functions stretched below their arguments. PDF: https://mwh.nz/pdf/paint2022
Interleaved 2D Notation for Concatenative Programming

Concatenative languages use implicit argument passing to provide a concise expression of programs comprising many composed transformation functions. However, they are sometimes regarded as “write-only” languages because understanding code requires mentally simulating the manipulations of the argument stack to identify where values are produced and consumed. All of this difficulty can be avoided with a notation that presents both the functions and their operands simultaneously, which can also ease editing by making available values and functions directly apparent. This paper presents a two-dimensional notation for these programs, comprising alternating rows of functions and operands with arguments and return values indicated by physical layout, and a tool for interactive live editing of programs in this notation.

Michael Homer
Dec 4, 2022 at 8:10pmWeb
Show threadMichael HomerDec 4, 2022
Abstract 1/2: Concatenative languages use implicit argument passing to provide a concise expression of programs comprising many composed transformation functions. However, they are sometimes regarded as “write-only” languages because understanding code requires mentally simulating the manipulations of the argument stack to identify where values are produced and consumed.
Show threadMichael HomerDec 4, 2022
Abstract 2/2: All of this difficulty can be avoided with a notation that presents both the functions and their operands simultaneously, which can also ease editing by making available values and functions directly apparent. This paper presents a two-dimensional notation for these programs, comprising alternating rows of functions and operands with arguments and return values indicated by physical layout, and a tool for interactive live editing of programs in this notation.