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Your First 5 Minutes with Eshkol

No theory, no background — just type and see what happens.

Install (30 seconds)

macOS:

brew tap tsotchke/eshkol && brew install eshkol

Linux:

# Download from GitHub Releases
curl -LO https://github.com/tsotchke/eshkol/releases/latest
# Extract and add to PATH

No install — browser: Go to eshkol.ai and type in the REPL.

Hello World (30 seconds)

$ eshkol-repl
> (display "Hello, world!")
Hello, world!
> (+ 1 2 3 4 5)
15
> (define (square x) (* x x))
> (square 7)
49

5 Things That Will Surprise You

1. The compiler does calculus

> (derivative (lambda (x) (* x x x)) 2.0)
12.0

That's d/dx(x^3) at x=2. The answer is 3x^2 = 12. No numerical approximation — the compiler computed the exact derivative.

2. Numbers never overflow

> (expt 2 256)
115792089237316195423570985008687907853269984665640564039457584007913129639936
> (* 999999999999999999 999999999999999999)
999999999999999998000000000000000001

Integers automatically promote to arbitrary precision. No overflow, no truncation, no surprises.

3. Fractions stay exact

> (+ 1/3 1/6)
1/2
> (* 2/3 3/4)
1/2
> (+ 1/7 1/7 1/7 1/7 1/7 1/7 1/7)
1

No floating-point rounding. Rationals are first-class values.

4. Functions are values

> (map (lambda (x) (* x x)) '(1 2 3 4 5))
(1 4 9 16 25)
> (filter even? '(1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8))
(2 4 6 8)
> (fold-left + 0 '(1 2 3 4 5))
15

Pass functions to functions. Transform lists in one line.

5. Redefine anything, anytime

> (define (greet) (display "Hello"))
> (greet)
Hello
> (define (greet) (display "Hey!"))
> (greet)
Hey!

The REPL hot-reloads every definition. Functions, variables, lambdas — redefine and the change takes effect immediately.

Your First Program (2 minutes)

Create a file called hello.esk:

(define (factorial n)
  (if (= n 0) 1
      (* n (factorial (- n 1)))))

(display "10! = ")
(display (factorial 10))
(newline)

(display "100! = ")
(display (factorial 100))
(newline)

Compile and run:

$ eshkol-run hello.esk -o hello
$ ./hello
10! = 3628800
100! = 93326215443944152681699238856266700490715968264381621468592963895217599993229915608941463976156518286253697920827223758251185210916864000000000000000000000000

What Next?

I want to... Start here
Learn the basics Tutorial 12: Lists, Tutorial 17: Functional Programming
Do machine learning Tutorial 1: Autodiff and ML, Project: Neural Network
Build something for the web Tutorial 18: Web Platform
Understand the unique features Tutorial 3: Weight Transformer, Tutorial 4: Consciousness Engine
See complete working programs Project tutorials
Just explore Paste code into the REPL at eshkol.ai