Cazal Stack-Based Programming Language

Cazal is a stack-based programming language where operations are performed on values stored in a stack. Programs are evaluated from left to right, pushing values onto the stack and executing operations that manipulate the stack.

Visit the Cazal web interpreter to try it out.

Core Concepts

Stack

The stack is the central data structure in Cazal. Operations:

• Push values onto the stack
• Pop values off the stack
• Manipulate values on the stack

Functions

Functions in Cazal are defined using parentheses ( ). When a function is encountered during parsing, it's treated as a single unit that can be pushed onto the stack and executed later.

Data Types

Cazal supports the following data types:

1. Int - Integer values
2. Float - Floating-point values
3. DefinedFn - User-defined functions enclosed in parentheses

Operators

Operators are in postfix notation. For example, a b + means "push a, push b, add them together".

Arithmetic Operators

Operator	Description
+	Addition
-	Subtraction
*	Multiplication
/	Division
%	Modulo (integers only)

Bitwise Operators

Operator	Description
&	Bitwise AND
|	Bitwise OR
^	Bitwise XOR
~	Bitwise NOT (unary)

Functions

Stack Manipulation

Function	Description	Effect
dup	Duplicates the top value	[a] → [a a]
pop	Removes and prints the top value	[a] → []
reverse	Reverses the entire stack	[a b c] → [c b a]
[n] swap	swaps elements on the stack, takes top value as which item(starting from the top, so 1 swap swaps the top 2 items, excluding the 1) to swap with	[a b c d e] 2 swap → [a b e d c]

Higher-Order Functions

Function	Description
[fn] map	Applies a function to each element on the stack
[fn] fold	Combines stack elements using a function
[count, fn] repeat	Repeats a function n times, where n is the second-to-top value on the stack
[fn] exec	Executes a function once (1 repeat)

Type Conversion

Function	Description
floor	Converts a float to int by rounding down
ceil	Converts a float to int by rounding up

Examples

Basic Arithmetic

2 3 +

Pushes 2 and 3 onto the stack, then adds them, resulting in 5.

Factorial Calculation

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ( 1 + ) map ( * ) fold

This calculates 10!:

1. Push numbers 0-9 onto the stack
2. Map the function ( 1 + ) to each element, resulting in 1-10
3. Fold using multiplication, calculating the product: 10!

Using Repeat

1 5 ( 2 * ) repeat

This pushes 1, 5 onto the stack, then repeats the function ( 2 * ) which doubles the value on the stack. The result is 5 * 2^5 = 160.

Using Map and Custom Functions

1 2 3 4 ( 2 + 3 * ) map

This pushes 1, 2, 3, 4 onto the stack, then applies the function ( 2 + 3 * ) to each element. For each value n, it computes (n+2)*3.

Error Handling

Cazal provides error messages for common issues:

• Type mismatches (e.g., using bitwise operations on floats)
• Unmatched parentheses
• Unknown operators or functions