The Io Language

Two of the best posts written about Io were by _why:<p>* Io Has A Very Clean Mirror - <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20080212010904/http://hackety.org/2008/01/05/ioHasAVeryCleanMirror.html" rel="nofollow">http://web.archive.org/web/20080212010904/http://hackety.org...</a><p>* Lazy Bricks, Lazy Mortar - <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20080430135919/http://hackety.org/2008/01/10/lazyBricksLazyMortar.html" rel="nofollow">http://web.archive.org/web/20080430135919/http://hackety.org...</a><p>Unfortunately they're only available via WayBackMachine.<p>Other useful links:<p>* Io notes - <a href="http://iota.flowsnake.org/" rel="nofollow">http://iota.flowsnake.org/</a><p>* Io sub-reddit - <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/iolanguage/" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/iolanguage/</a>

I've written a very powerful C++ binding library for Io. It allows you to mirror object-based C++ APIs inside Io and will do most conversions for you automatically. (For instance you don't have to worry about calling methods by pointer or by reference; it will "do the right thing" automatically.) I've used it to bind the Bullet physics engine and the Irrlicht 3d graphics engine, for game making.<p><a href="http://github.com/dennisferron/LikeMagic" rel="nofollow">http://github.com/dennisferron/LikeMagic</a>

One very simple thing that Io gets right is the unification of instance variables and methods as slots. It lets you override behavior with little friction:<p><pre><code> Person := Object clone do( name ::= nil greeting := method( "Hello I'm " .. name ) ) bob := Person clone setName("Bob") greeting # =&#62; I'm Bob bill := Person clone bill greeting := "Yo" bill greeting # =&#62; Yo</code></pre>

_why's Io Has A Very Clean Mirror: <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20080222044550/hackety.org/2008/01/05/ioHasAVeryCleanMirror.html" rel="nofollow">http://web.archive.org/web/20080222044550/hackety.org/2008/0...</a>

it would be great if every language on their home page, as well as listing how to do common things such as this:<p><a href="http://www.iolanguage.com/scm/io/docs/IoTutorial.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.iolanguage.com/scm/io/docs/IoTutorial.html</a><p>would also give a demonstration of what makes this language unusual (beyond syntax).<p>for io it seems like this might be some smalltalk-inspired message passing stuff:<p><a href="http://www.iolanguage.com/scm/io/docs/IoGuide.html#Objects-Forward" rel="nofollow">http://www.iolanguage.com/scm/io/docs/IoGuide.html#Objects-F...</a><p>combined with concurrency:<p><a href="http://www.iolanguage.com/scm/io/docs/IoGuide.html#Concurrency-Actors" rel="nofollow">http://www.iolanguage.com/scm/io/docs/IoGuide.html#Concurren...</a><p>but it's hard to tell at a glance.<p>fwiw, the haskell page does a great job of this: following the "why use haskell?" gives the classic quicksort example.

If only there was actually an Io community... If you notice, practically everyone in here mentions they've "dabbled" with Io, but practically no one is using this for production code.<p>Io still doesn't even have releases which I find pretty disconcerting.

I absolutely love Io, and my favorite "feature" of the implementation is the ability to modify scripts in real time and have the changes take place immediately, for better or worse ;)

I first encountered this language while looking at the ToC of "Seven Languages in Seven Weeks":<p><a href="http://pragprog.com/titles/btlang/seven-languages-in-seven-weeks" rel="nofollow">http://pragprog.com/titles/btlang/seven-languages-in-seven-w...</a><p>...and it was the only language I hadn't seen anything of before. Interesting mix of paradigms, and very clean syntax, at least from the little I've seen of it. If any HNers have used it for a non-trivial project, would love to hear of your experiences please.