Keywords as Property Names

Keywords connect three features in Lykn — and this chapter is where the connection becomes visible.

One Concept, Four Roles

Keywords (:name, :age, :first-name) compile to string literals ("name", "age", "firstName"). They appear in:

Object construction (Ch 18):

(obj :name "Duncan" :age 42)
;; → {name: "Duncan", age: 42}

Property access:

(get user :name)
;; → user["name"]

Type annotations (Ch 5):

(func greet :args (:string name) ...)

Match patterns (Ch 10):

(match response
  ((obj :ok true :data d) (process d))
  ...)

:first-name compiles to "firstName". The conversion is consistent everywhere keywords appear: (obj :first-name "Duncan") produces {firstName: "Duncan"}, and (get user :first-name) produces user["firstName"].

The Syntactic Glue

Keywords are Lykn’s syntactic glue for property names. You use the same :name keyword when constructing an object, accessing a property, matching on structure, and labelling function clauses. One concept, one syntax, used everywhere. This is the kind of internal consistency that makes a language feel coherent rather than assembled.

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