Interesting timing... A few days ago I started work on a language of my very own, designed from the ground up. Here's Arc's `alref` implemented in my language:
$def! ref: type list? any?
[[X Y] | R] X -> Y
[~ | R] Y -> ref R Y
Alternatively, if you want to build it on top of `assoc`:
$def! assoc: type list? any?
[X | R] Y -> $if: is (car X) Y
X
assoc R Y
$def! ref: type list? any?
X K -> let R: assoc X K
if R: car: cdr R
I'm still working on the parser and evaluator... once it gets into a semi-decent state I plan to post it on GitHub along with more information, including a tutorial.
Oh yes, and I should mention that I hadn't seen that link until just now, so I wasn't stealing their ideas about pattern matching or syntax. Instead, my language has taken ideas from Kernel, Shen, a tiny bit of Arc, and a little splash of my own ideas thrown in for good measure.
