Install s-lang with Homebrew, apt

Project links

• Homepage
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• slsh

Project history

John E. Davis began S-Lang in the fall of 1992 while developing the jed editor and seeking an application-independent macro language that could be embedded elsewhere. It began as a stack language with PostScript-like syntax; about a year later, Davis developed a preparser supporting a more conventional infix syntax. The modern language consequently resembles C while retaining some traits of its stack-language origin.

Adoption history

S-Lang was adopted both as an embedded extension language and as a terminal-programming library. Official documentation identifies jed and the slrn newsreader as prominent applications embedding the interpreter, while slsh made the language usable independently for scripts and interactive work.

How it is used

Developers embed the interpreter to make applications extensible or use the C library for display management, keyboard input, keymaps, and terminal I/O. Users run slsh for scripts, interactive experimentation, command-line editing, history, completion, and dynamically loaded modules.

Why package nerds care

S-Lang occupies an unusual intersection of language runtime, terminal UI toolkit, and compatibility library. Package maintainers encounter it both as a shared dependency of terminal-oriented applications and as the provider of slsh, so packaging it is not merely packaging another standalone interpreter.

Timeline

• 1992: John E. Davis began S-Lang while developing the jed editor.
• Circa 1993: Work began on an infix-syntax preparser for the originally stack-oriented language.
• Later development: slsh provided a standalone scripting and interactive environment alongside embedded use.

Related projects

• jed motivated S-Lang's creation and embeds it as an extension language.
• slrn is another documented application embedding the S-Lang interpreter.
• slsh is the standalone shell distributed with S-Lang.
• curses overlaps with S-Lang's terminal and screen-management facilities; S-Lang also provides curses emulation.

Sources

• Official documentation index: https://www.jedsoft.org/slang/docs.html
• Official language guide and historical preface: https://www.jedsoft.org/slang/doc/html/slang-1.html
• Official project overview: https://www.jedsoft.org/slang/