τ
Tau is a dinamically-typed open source programming language designed to be minimal, fast and efficient.
Installation
In order to install Tau, you'll need Go.
Once done, running the following command will successfully install the tau interpreter:
go install github.com/NicoNex/tau@latestYou can try it out in the terminal by simply running $ tau, alternatively to take advantage of the builtin virtual machine and gain a lot of performance run it with $ tau -vm.
The flag -vm works when executing files too.
For additional info run $ tau --help.
Syntax
Hello World
We all start from here...
println("Hello World")Examples
File
As every interpreter Tau supports files either by passing the path to the interpreter or by using the shabang.
# helloworld.tau
println("hello world")$ tau helloworld.tau
hello world
if-else blocks
if 1 > 0 {
println("yes")
} else {
println("no")
}myVar = 10
if myVar > 10 {
println("more than 10")
} else if myVar == 10 {
println("it's exactly 10")
} else {
println(myVar)
}Declaring a function
loop = fn(times, function) {
if times > 0 {
function()
loop(times-1, function)
}
}
loop(5, fn() { println("Hello World") })Noteworthy features
The return value can be implicit:
add = fn(x, y) { x + y }
sum = add(9, 1)
println(sum)>>> 10
Also you can inline the if expressions:
a = 0
b = 1
minimum = if a < b { a } else { b }The semicolon character ; is implicit on a newline but can be used to separate multiple expressions on a single line.
printData = fn(a, b, c) { println(a); println(b); println(c) }Functions are first-class and treated as any other data type.
min = fn(a, b) {
if a < b {
return a
}
b
}
var1 = 1
var2 = 2
m = min(var1, var2)
println(m)>>> 1
REPL
Tau also supports REPL:
>>> add = fn(a, b) { a + b }
>>> string(add)
fn(a, b) { (a + b) }
>>> string(21)
21
>>> recursive_loop = fn(n, func) { if n != 0 { func(n); recursive_loop(n-1, func) } }
>>> recursive_loop(10, fn(n) { println("hello", n) })
hello 10
hello 9
hello 8
hello 7
hello 6
hello 5
hello 4
hello 3
hello 2
hello 1
Data types
Tau is a dynamically-typed programming language and it supports the following primitive types:
Integer
my_var = 10Float
my_var = 2.5String
str = "My string here"Boolean
t = true
f = falseFunction
pow = fn(base, exponent) {
if exponent > 0 {
return base * pow(base, exponent-1)
}
1 # You could optionally write 'return 1', but in this case the return is implicit.
}List
empty = []
stuff = ["Hello World", 1, 2, 3, true]Map
empty = {}
stuff = {"Hello": "World", 123: true}Loop
for i = 0; i < 10; ++i {
println("hello world", i)
}
lst = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]
println(lst)
for len(lst) > 0 {
println(lst = tail(lst))
}Objects
obj = new()
obj.value1 = 123
obj.value2 = 456
obj.sum_values = fn() {
obj.value1 + obj.value2
}
obj.child = new()
obj.child.value = obj.sum_values()Recommended usage
Dog = fn(name, age) {
dog = new()
dog.name = name
dog.age = age
dog.humanage = fn() {
dog.age * 7
}
return dog
}
snuffles = Dog("Snuffles", 8)
println(snuffles.humanage())>>> 56