We’ve been refining our project ideas using the MoSCoW method; establishing their scope and feasibility by examining what they Must have, what they Should have, what they Could have, and what they Won’t have. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

MUST HAVE

• Command line interface with a runnable interpreter.
• Basic data flow.
• Basic variables.
• Basic operators.
• Simple output (e.g. text)

SHOULD HAVE

• Graphical interface.
• Graphical input and output.
• Syntax that reflects the philosophy of simplification of toki pona.
• Website for collecting/submitting programs.

COULD HAVE

• JavaScript interpreter to run programs on the website.
• Some kind of exhibitible display of some example programs.

WON’T HAVE

• Advanced programming features that can make code shorter but not simpler. (e.g. lambda functions)

I’ve also been thinking about a name for this project. “Poki Nanpa” is the current frontrunner. The literal translation of that is “Number Box”. It’s sometimes used to mean “computer” (though “ilo sona”, “knowledge tool”, is the more standard translation) and I don’t think anyone else has used that as the name of a toki pona programming language yet.