second commit of spec

README.md

@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ The playground depends on the components library which then depends on the langu
 
 # Develop
 
-For any project in the repo, begin by running `yarn` in the top level (TODO: is this true?) 
+For any project in the repo (`packages/`), begin by running `yarn` in the top level (TODO: is this true?) 
 
 ``` sh
 yarn
@@ -39,5 +39,16 @@ codium
 
 The `nix develop` shell also provides `yarn`. 
 
+# Alpha syntax specification
+
+You can render a pdf of the syntax specification. 
+``` sh
+cd syntax
+nix-build
+o result/squiggle-spec.pdf
+```
+
+Where `o` is `open` if you're on OSX and `xdg-open` if you're on linux. 
+
 # Contributing
 See `CONTRIBUTING.md`. 

syntax/README.md

@@ -2,7 +2,8 @@
 
 We give the syntax in a BNF-like specification
 
+## Render
 ``` sh
 nix-build
 ```
-shall dump `squiggle-spec.pdf` in the `result` directory. 
+Shall dump `squiggle-spec.pdf` in the `result` directory. 

syntax/spec/biblio.bib

@@ -3,3 +3,27 @@
     title = {Practical Foundations for Programming Languages},
     year = {2016}
 }
+@article{@SqgCodePlan,
+    author = {Ozzie Gooen},
+    title = {Squiggle Alpha 0.1 Code Plan},
+    year = {2022},
+    url = {https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oKTxolRrs-0g0TGEvqCMdhY2FdIjcDj678WUk1iMpx8/edit?usp=sharing}
+}
+@book{@CraftingInterpreters,
+    author = {Robert Nystrom},
+    title = {Crafting Interpreters},
+    year = {2021},
+    url = {https://craftinginterpreters.com/contents.html}
+}
+@article{@SqgSequence,
+    author = {Ozzie Gooen, Nuno Sempere},
+    title = {Squiggle (Sequence)},
+    year = {2020},
+    url = {https://www.lesswrong.com/s/rDe8QE5NvXcZYzgZ3}
+}
+@article{@BNFWiki,
+    author = {Foundation Wikimedia},
+    year = {2022},
+    title = {Backus-Naur Form},
+    url = {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backus-Naur_form}
+}

syntax/spec/introduction.tex

@@ -1,5 +1,19 @@
 \documentclass[../main.tex]{subfiles}
 \begin{document}
-\section{Design goals of Squiggle}
+\section{Squiggle: the current document}
+
+The current document is a formal description of the syntax that Squiggle will target in it's alpha release, scheduled for Q3 2022. It is initially drafted for consumption by the team, not by the user base.
+
+For an informal story of what we are about to see, consult \cite{@SqgCodePlan}.
+
+We proceed by a BNF (\cite{@BNFWiki}), and take nods about how to communicate about programming languages from \cite{@CraftingInterpreters}, neglecting lessons from \cite{@PFPL}.
+
+\subsection{Design goals}
+
+We would like, as a programming language, a \textbf{specification} for \textit{expressing beliefs}.
+
+One key difference between this vision and probabilistic programming languages (PPLs) is that for us, the ingest of data is not a factor. See discussion with John Wentworth in \cite{@SqgSequence} for background on the PPL comparison.
+
+TODO
 
 \end{document}

syntax/spec/main.tex

@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 \usepackage[backend=biber, hyperref=true, citestyle=authoryear]{biblatex}
 \addbibresource{biblio.bib}
 
-\title{Squiggle-alpha specification v0.0.1}
+\title{Squiggle-alpha specification v0.0.1 (INTERNAL)}
 \author{Quinn Dougherty}
 \date{April 2022}
 

syntax/spec/semantics.tex

@@ -2,4 +2,6 @@
 \begin{document}
 \section{Semantics}\label{section:semantics}
 
+TODO: Some way of expressing the evaluation and execution model.
+
 \end{document}

syntax/spec/syntax.tex

@@ -1,7 +1,14 @@
 \documentclass[../main.tex]{subfiles}
 \begin{document}
 \section{Syntax}\label{section:syntax}
-\subsection{Base types and 44 ast nodes}
+
+At a high level, we will first be slightly dishonest because the different types of distributions make the story more intricate. Details about assignment and arithmetic on floats will follow eventually, but I want to sketch out a theory of combining distributions, first.
+
+
+
+
+
+\subsection{THE FOLLOWING IS HERE FOR TEMPLATE SO I DON'T FORGET HOW TO BNF IN LATEX. }
 In regex notation, we provide the following means of describing literals as well as the specification of the constants T and F.
     \begin{center}
     \begin{tabular}{c c c}