Getting started
Welcome to Disco! Disco is a programming language intended to teach basic functional programming principles in the context of a discrete mathematics course. Even if you’ve never done any programming before, this series of tutorials is intended to gently introduce you to the language from first principles.
To get started using Disco, just visit Disco Live, where you will be
able to evaluate Disco expressions and edit and run your own
.disco files, all via your web browser, without installing
anything on your computer.
(It is also possible to install Disco on your own computer if you really want to; see here for instructions.)
A few useful resources as you get started:
If you think you have found a bug in Disco, please report it on GitHub. Even if you’re not sure whether something is a bug or not, it’s still helpful to see what you’re confused about.
If you have an idea for a new feature, or how to make something less confusing, report it on GitHub as well!
Exercises
Disco can be used as a basic calculator. Enter each of the following arithmetic expressions at the Disco prompt and report the results.
2 + 35 - 85 * (-2)(1 + 2)(3 + 4)3/7 + 2/52 ^ 52 ^ 50002 ^ (-5)|3||-3|
What is similar to what you are familiar with from graphing calculators or other programming languages? What is different?