Meta-Commands

Meta-commands are commands intended for the interpreter and are explicitly not part of the Cat language. A meta-command typically starts with a hash character (#). Note that meta-commands are valid Cat identifiers, and could conflict with a user-definition.

The meta-commands are:

• #h - Provides detailed help about a primitive or library function. Usage "dip" #h.
• #t - Infer types. Usage: [swap dup] #t. See also: TypeInference.
• #m - Apply loaded macros to a quotation on stack. Usage: [swap swap] #m. See also: Macros.
• #p - Reduces a quotation on the stack by pre-evaluating sub-expressions. Usage: [2 3 + +] #p. See also: PartialEvaluation.
• #i - Performs inline expansion of function calls in a quotation (5 levels deep). Usage: [1 [+] curry] #i. See also: InlineExpansion.
• #i0 - Performs a single inline expansion pass (1 level deep). Usage: [1 [+] curry] #i. See also: InlineExpansion.
• #o - Optimizes a quotation using a combination of techniques. Usage: [[1 +] map [3 *] map] #o. See also: Optimization.
• #c - Compiles a quotation into a CIL dynamic assembly and creates an output file "out.exe". Usage: [42 writeln] #c. See also: Compilation.
• #run - Runs a dynamic assembly. Usage: [42 writeln] #c #run. See also: Compilation.
• #save - Saves a transcript of the session so far to the specified file name. Usage: "transcript.txt" #save.
• #load - Opens and executes a file containing Cat code. Usage: "mylibrary.cat" #load.
• #defs - Lists all loaded functions and their types. Usage: #defs.
• #exit - Exits the interpreter. Usage: #exit.