https://github.com/rbaltrusch/natscript
The Natscript interpreter, a custom programming language, with a natural English-like syntax.
https://github.com/rbaltrusch/natscript
custom-interpreted-language custom-language interpreter language natscript programming-language programming-languages python-interpreter python3
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The Natscript interpreter, a custom programming language, with a natural English-like syntax.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/rbaltrusch/natscript
- Owner: rbaltrusch
- License: mit
- Created: 2020-11-21T11:30:22.000Z (over 4 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2024-11-04T17:37:24.000Z (7 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2024-11-06T15:06:37.130Z (6 months ago)
- Topics: custom-interpreted-language, custom-language, interpreter, language, natscript, programming-language, programming-languages, python-interpreter, python3
- Language: Python
- Homepage:
- Size: 299 KB
- Stars: 5
- Watchers: 4
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 3
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
- License: LICENSE
- Code of conduct: CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
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# Natscript Interpreter
This is Natscript, a custom cross-platform, dynamic interpreted language with a free, natural language-like syntax that lends itself to prosaic code, such as:
```powershell
define function main as {
set squares to []
for each number in range from 0 to 5 not equal to 3 {
multiply it by itself, then append it to squares
}
return squares
}
# This will output [0, 1, 4, 16] to the console
print result of call main
```
The main implementation of the Natscript interpreter is currently written in Python, but may be shifted to [C++](https://github.com/rbaltrusch/natscript/tree/main/README.md#c-implementation) in the future for improved performance.
## Available functionality
Currently available functionality includes:
- variables and operations
- conditionals
- loops (for-each, while)
- first-order functions
- module declarations and imports
- access modifiers (private, constant)
- recursion
- a bytecode compiler to speed up module loading
- precise stack traces for run-time exceptions
Language documentation can be found in the [doc](https://github.com/rbaltrusch/natscript/tree/main/doc) folder.
## Getting started
To get a copy of this repository, clone it using git, then install all dependencies (currently none), as well as the natscript package itself:
```batch
git clone https://github.com/rbaltrusch/natscript
cd natscript
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
python -m pip install -e .
```
To run the interpreter, run the natscript Python package, specifying a Natscript file to be executed, or nothing to enter an interactive shell session:
```batch
python -m natscript
python -m natscript doc\examples\helloworld.nat
```
## Syntax highlighting
### Github / Linguist
Currently, Natscript is in its early stages and not supported yet by Linguist (which, e.g. provides the syntax highlighting on Github). Powershell syntax highlighting seems to be an acceptable alternative.
### Visual Studio Code
Language support in VS Code is in work, but not available yet. An early-stage VS Code extension with static syntax highlighting can be found [here](https://github.com/rbaltrusch/natscript-vscode), but at the moment needs to be manually added to the VS Code extensions folder.
### Notepad++
The syntax highlighting file for Natscript in Notepad++ can be found [here](https://github.com/rbaltrusch/natscript/tree/main/tools/syntax_highlighting/notepad++/natscript.xml). It can be imported to Notepad++ in the Languages menu (Languages -> User Language -> Define Your Language... -> Import).
## Documentation
Language documentation, including examples and tutorials, can be found in the [doc](https://github.com/rbaltrusch/natscript/tree/main/doc) folder. It is currently a work in progress.
### Examples
Below is one example of the natural syntax of Natscript:
```powershell
define function fibonacci expecting [limit] as {
set old to 1
set current to 1
set numbers to [old current]
while checked that current is less than the limit {
set temp to current
add old to current then set old to temp
append current to numbers
}
return the numbers
}
define function main as {
return result of call fibonacci with [1000000]
}
# prints all fibonacci numbers from 1 to 1000000
call main and print result
```
A full list of code examples can be found [here](https://github.com/rbaltrusch/natscript/tree/main/doc/examples).
### Tutorials
Tutorials can be found in the [doc](https://github.com/rbaltrusch/natscript/tree/main/doc) folder.
### Interpreter CLI
The Natscript interpreter CLI has several configureable options:
```
usage: natscript [-h] [--debug] [--compile COMPILE] [--compiled-format {pickle,json}]
[--iterations ITERATIONS]
filepath
CLI for the Natscript interpreter
positional arguments:
filepath The path of the Natscript file to be run
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--debug, -d Enables the interpreter debug mode
--compile COMPILE, -c COMPILE
Enables the bytecode compiler
--compiled-format {pickle,json}, -f {pickle,json}
Specifies the format of the bytecode-compiled file
--iterations ITERATIONS, -i ITERATIONS
Specifies how often the script should be executed
```
The interpreter CLI help message can be shown by running:
```batch
python -m natscript -h
```
## Pyinstaller
Packaging the interpreter using pyinstaller can speed up execution time of Natscript code by a factor of 2x. Simply bundle it using the command:
```batch
pyinstaller -n natscript natscript/__main__.py
```
This will generate an executable file called natscript.exe (with the same CLI as the python package) in the dist/natscript folder.
## C++ Implementation
The C++ implementation (work in progress) of the Natscript interpreter can be found [here](https://github.com/rbaltrusch/cpp-natscript). This may be abandoned in the future in favour of LLVM-based JIT acceleration for the Python implementation of Natscript.
## Contributions
Contributions are welcome! For more details, please read the [contribution guidelines](CONTRIBUTING.md).
## Python
Written in Python 3.8.3.
## License
This repository is open-source software available under the [MIT license](https://github.com/rbaltrusch/natscript/blob/main/LICENSE).
## Contact
Please raise an issue for code changes. To reach out, please send an email to [email protected].