1. What is Poetics?
A native implementation of CoffeeScript [1] that runs on the Rubinius VM [2].
Q. Whence comes the name Poetics?
A. Poetics is a partial anagram of the word CoffeeScript. It is also a nod
to Jeremy Ashkenas, the author of CoffeeScript, and his interest in code
as literature.
Q. Why a native implementation?
A. CoffeeScript is an interesting language in its own right. Rather than
merely being a syntax layer on top of Javascript, and bound to expressing
its semantics in those of Javascript, it deserves its own implementation.
Many of the reasons to use CoffeeScript in Node.js would also apply to
using this native implementation.
2. License
Poetics is MIT licensed. See the LICENSE file.
3. Installation
First, install Rubinius:
1. Using RVM (http://rvm.beginrescueend.com).
rvm install rbx
2. Or directly (http://rubini.us/doc/en/what-is-rubinius/).
Second, install Poetics:
rbx -S gem install poetics
4. Running Poetics
Poetics provides a REPL for exploratory programming or runs CoffeeScript
scripts.
rbx -S poetics -h
The REPL presently just parses code and returns an S-Expression
representation:
$ rbx -S poetics
> 42
[:number, 42.0, 1, 1]
> "hello, y'all"
[:string, "hello, y'all", 1, 1]
>
To exit the REPL hit CTRL + d.
5. Getting Help
Poetics is a work in progress. If you encounter trouble, please file an issue
at https://github.com/brixen/poetics/issues
6. Contributing
If you find Poetics interesting and would like to help out, fork the project
on Github and submit a pull request.
7. People
Poetics was created by Brian Ford (brixen) to force him to really learn
Javascript and CoffeeScript.
<add your name here>
8. Credits
Jeremy has created an very interesting language in CoffeeScript. This
implementation steals bits and pieces from other projects:
* Rubinius (https://github.com/rubinius/rubinius/)
* KPeg (https://github.com/evanphx/kpeg/)
* Atomy (https://github.com/vito/atomy/)
* Poison (https://github.com/brixen/poison/)
* Talon (https://github.com/evanphx/talon/)
[1] CoffeeScript (http://jashkenas.github.com/coffee-script/)
[2] Rubinius (http://rubini.us)
