Mindcode

Welcome to Mindcode, a high-level language for Mindustry. Mindustry is a game in the tower-defense genre. Mindustry added Logic in late 2020. Logic is a programming language, closer to assembly than a high-level language. Mindcode aims to make programming easier for everyone.

Using Mindcode

Either compile and run Mindcode yourself (see the Development section), or visit http://mindcode.herokuapp.com/

Write some Mindcode in the "Source Code" text area, then press the "Compile" button. The "Compiled Code" section will contain the Logic version of your Mindcode. Copy the compiled version. Back in Mindustry, edit your processor, then use the "Edit" button in the Logic UI. Select "Import from Clipboard". Mindustry is now ready to execute your code. Be on the lookout for "invalid" nodes in the Logic, and if you can, please report them so that Mindcode can be improved for everyone.

Mindcode Syntax

Please read the syntax document for the high-level information. The samples in the src/main/resources/samples directory are compiled on every test run and are thus always up-to-date with the most-recent version of Mindcode. If you programmed in any high-level language, you should feel right at home.

@schittli kindly contributed a VS Code syntax highlighter.

Download the extension from the Visual Studio marketplace.

Mindustry Logic References

If you don't know much about Mindustry Logic, you can read more information about them here:

• Logic in 6.0 Aug 2020
• How To Use Processors in 6.0 Nov 2020
• An Overly In-Depth Logic Guide Dec 2020

There also exists a VSCode syntax highlighter for Mindustry Logic.

Development

There are two options for getting Mindcode up and running on your own machine. Using Docker, or running it natively:

With Docker & Docker Compose

docker-compose up --build

It can take a few minutes to download and compile all the required parts the first time you run this, but subsequent runs will be be a lot faster.

The Mindcode UI will now be running on localhost, port 8080. Visit http://localhost:8080/ to interact with it.

Native installation

1. Install Java 11+, Maven 3.6, and PostgreSQL
2. Create a database in PostgreSQL named mindcode_development
3. Set environment variables with the PostgreSQL connection parameters:

export SPRING_DATASOURCE_URL=jdbc:postgresql://localhost/mindcode_development
export SPRING_DATASOURCE_USERNAME=postgres_username
export SPRING_DATASOURCE_PASSWORD=postgres_password

Then run:

bin/run-local

The Mindcode UI will now be running on localhost, port 8080. Visit http://localhost:8080/ to interact with it.

The compiler was written in a Test-Driven Development fashion. If you can, please look in src/main/test and attempt to emulate an existing test, so that we can prove that your proposal works as intended.

Roadmap

Things I'd like to add to Mindcode-the-language:

• loops
  • while
  • for
• expressions!
  • move(center_x + radius * sin(@tick), center_y + radius * cos(@tick)) moves a unit in a circle around a specific point
• if expressions (ternary operator)
• auto-allocated global variables
• switch / case expression
• add support for drawing primitives
• add support for uradar
• add support for ulocate
• add support for end
• functions / reusable procedures
• further optimize the generated Logic
• optimize getlink / set
• optimize sensor / set
• #16 indirect sensor access. We can't do resource = @silicon ; CONTAINER.resource. This tries to call sensor result CONTAINER @resource, which doesn't make any sense.
• warn developers when the generated code goes over 1000 Mindustry instructions
• #17 break, next and continue, to better control iteration
• #17 if operator: break if some_cond is equivalent to if some_cond break end. It's just a less verbose way of doing it.
• #19 inline functions, meaning functions that are inlined at the call-site
• skip comments when determining the return value of expressions (case/when, if/else, etc.)
• support multi-value return functions (getBlock comes to mind, but also Unit Locate)
• warn developers when trying to pass in/return values that are non-numeric to/from functions
• improved data types: 2d vector
• add support for passing non-numerics into/out of functions

Things I'd like to add to Mindcode-the-webapp:

• integrate a better code editor, rather than a plain old <textarea>
• ability to expose functions to the public
• import functions from fellow Mindcode users
  • this will probably be implemented as a preprocessor, instead of being directly integrated in Mindcode-the-language

License

MIT. See LICENSE for the full text of the license.