objective-lisp/README.md

# objective-lisp

Syntactic sugar for object-oriented Lisp.

`objective-lisp` provides a simple, concise, and (slightly) more conventional
syntax for accessing the slots and methods of objects. It defines a macro named
`O!`, and a reader macro for `#[...]` (although you can change these characters
in the code).

## Usage

**TL;DR:** `#[object (method args)]` is like `object.method(args)` in C++.

First, to enable `objective-lisp`'s syntax, just load the system:
``` common-lisp
(asdf:load-system 'objective-lisp)
```

`objective-lisp`'s syntax takes the form of a special S-expression, contained
in square brackets rather than parentheses. Each expression within acts upon the
result of the previous one, like a chain of `.` (dot) operators in C-like
languages.
```common-lisp
#[foo (bar) (baz) (quux)]
;; C++: foo.bar().baz().quux()
```

To call a method, just write it after the object:
``` common-lisp
#[object (method args...)]
;; => (method object args...)
```

Under the hood, this just passes `object` as the first argument to `method`, so
you can do stuff like this (I won't kinkshame you, but your coworkers might):
```common-lisp
#[object (slot-value 'slot-name) (setf value)]
;; => #[(slot-value object 'slot-name) (setf value)]
;;  => (setf (slot-value object 'slot-name) value)
```

Slot accessors, and other methods that don't take additional arguments, can be
written without enclosing parentheses:
``` common-lisp
#[object get-something]
;; => (get-something object)
```

To access slots directly, use the `:slot` keyword:
``` common-lisp
#[object :slot slot-name]
;; => (slot-value object 'slot-name)
```

You can also just use the `O!` macro directly:

``` common-lisp
(O! object :slot foo (do-something args...))
;; => (do-something (slot-value object 'foo) args...)
```

## License
`objective-lisp` is public domain (CC0). You can do whatever you want with it. I
don't really care about credit, it's just a silly little thing I wrote in a few
hours. (And then rewrote just now because the syntax sucked.)

But if you find it useful, *please* let me know. I'd love to hear about it.