Introduction

zlang is a dynamic language interpreter (aka z language) based on Go language implementation. It combines some syntax of JavaScript and Python and supports basic control flow of traditional languages, including conditional statements, standard I/O, function closures, recursion, and so on. It is currently under active development.

1. Quick Start

If you have already installed the Go language environment, you can choose to download and compile it directly:

git clone https://github.com/Chasing1020/zlang.git
go mod tidy
go build

Alternatively, you can choose to use the compiled version directly. Try running:

./zlang run main.zjc
# Hello, world!

If you see "Hello, world!" outputted, then it means you have successfully installed zlang.

1.1. Data Types

Currently, zlang supports six basic data types: int, string, boolean, array, map, and function.

Every time you create a new variable, you need to use "let", for example:

let int = 1;
let string = "a string";
let boolean = true;
let array = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
let map = {"k": "v"};
let add = function (a, b) {
    return a + b;
};

Array type: similar to the list in Python, it can store data of any type, like this:

let arr = [1, 2, function (a, b) {println(a + b);}]
arr[2](arr[0], arr[1]) // 3

Map type: to avoid hash collisions, keys can only be int or string types. However, in one map, you can mix and match both types, like this:

let map = {"chasing":1020, 1020:"chasing"}
println(map["chasing"], map[1020]) // 1020, chasing

1.2. Operators

The current version supports basic operators such as +, -, *, /, %, <, >, <=, >=, !=, ==, with the same order of precedence as in C language.

1.3. Control Flow

The usage of if and for loops is the same as that in C-like languages:

if (true) { print("true"); } else { print("false"); }

let sum = 0;
for (let i = 0; i <= 100; i = i + 1) {
    sum = sum + i;
}
println(sum); // 5050

1.4. Built-in Functions

Evaluate a string as an expression: eval(x) Standard output: print(x), println(x), printf(fmt, x) Standard input: input(), which returns a string type by default Get length: len(x), which returns the length of an array or a string Create a new array: newArray(x), which creates a new integer array with a length of x, and is initialized to 0 by default Type conversion: string(x), int(x), which converts between string and int types Comparison functions: min(a, b), max(a, b), which return the minimum and maximum values of two integers

2. Basic Commands

To run the program, simply enter "./zlang" in the command line. To exit, press ctrl+c twice or ctrl+D once.

$ ./zlang                         
Welcome to zLang v0.0.1.
Type "help()" for more information.
> ^C
(To exit, press Ctrl+C again or Ctrl+D)
> ^C%                             

3. Todo List

Support floating point numbers and object-oriented programming. Optimize function recursion stack copying logic. Support finer control structures such as "break" and "continue". Support operations such as "++", "--", "+=", and "-=".

4. Software License

Licensed under the Apache License 2.0.