Unu: Simple, Literate Source Files

Retro is written in a literate style. Most of the sources are in a format called Unu. This allows easy mixing of commentary and code blocks, making it simple to document the code.

As an example,

# Determine The Average Word Name Length

To determine the average length of a word name two values are needed. First, the total length of all names in the Dictionary:

~~~ #0 [ d:name s:length + ] d:for-each ~~~

And then the number of words in the Dictionary:

~~~ #0 [ drop n:inc ] d:for-each ~~~

With these, a simple division is all that's left.

~~~ / ~~~

Finally, display the results:



~~~ 'Average_name_length:_%n\n s:format s:put ~~~

This illustrates the format. Only code in the fenced blocks (between ~~~ pairs) get extracted and run.

(Note: this only applies to source files; fences are not used when entering code interactively).

On The Name

The name Unu comes from the Maori language, where it means:

(verb) (-hia) pull out, withdraw, draw out, extract. Taken from https://maoridictionary.co.nz/