Symbolang

Design of Symbolang

These are all implemented (and some planned) features of Symbolang. Each example has a C code equivalent (if none exist, a Python may be provided).

Getting Started

All Symbolang source files have the .🤓 extension.

To interpret your source file, simply

$ symbolang.exe <fileName>

Or, if you have the repository cloned:

go run main.go <fileName>

Interpreting Options:

-dp     : Show debug messages for the parsing stage of the interpreter.
-dt     : Show debug messages for the tokens produced by the tokenization stage.
-dall   : show all debug messages.

Printing Emojis

There are two printing functions in Symbolang. One for basic print (print) and another for printing with a new line (println).

Print

✏️ "Hello, World!" 🫷

// Equivalent C code:
printf("Hello, World!");

• ✏️: denotes the literal after it is to be printed.
• 🫷: denoted the end of the line.

The implementation above 1 will print “Hello, World!” without a new line.

Println

🖊️ "Hello, World!" 🫷

// Equivalent C code:
printf("Hello, World!\n");

• 🖊️: denotes the literal after it is to be printed with a new line.

Multiple Print Statements

Let ⬜ denote the ✏️ or 🖊️ emoji, multiple print statements are of the form:

⬜ <literal_1> ⬜ <literal_2> ⬜ ... 🫷

// Equivalent C code:
printf(<literal_1>);
printf(<literal_2>);

Example:

🖊️ "Hello" ✏️ "World" ✏️ "!" 🫷

// Equivalent C code:
printf("Hello\n");
printf("World");
printf("!");

Comments

🖊️ "Hello, World!" 🫷 💭 This is a comment
💭 🖊️ "This will not work" 🫷
🖊️ "Okay, bye!" 🫷

// Equivalent C code:
printf("Hello, World!\n"); // This is a comment
// printf("This will not work\n");
printf("Okay, bye!\n");

• 💭: denotes a comment, makes all columns in the same line after it a comment.

Notice that the comment emoji is implicitly terminated “area-of-effect” at the end of the row.

Variables and Constants

Variables

💭 Example: 📃 <identifier> <literal> 🫷
📃 name "Matthew" 🫷

// Equivalent C code:
// Example: <data_type> <identifier> = <literal>
char name[7] = "Matthew";

• 📃: denotes variable declaration and assignment.

We use the same syntax to redefine variables

📃 name "Matthew" 🫷
📃 name "Zhean" 🫷

// Equivalent C code:
char name[7] = "Matthew";
strcpy(name, "Zhean"); // assume string.h is included

⚠️ Data types are unimplemented. Data types are implicit and dynamic, hence we can redefine a variable to a value of a different data type.

📃 x "Matthew" 🫷
📃 x 100 🫷

// Equivalent Python code:
x = "Matthew"
x = 100

Constants

A constant is a variable whose value cannot be changed.

💭 Example: 🪨 <identifier> <literal> 🫷
🪨 name "Matthew" 🫷

// Equivalent C code:
// Example: const <data_type> <identifier> = <literal>
const char name[7] = "Matthew";

• 🪨: constant declaration.

Redefining a constant leads to an error:

🪨 name "Matthew" 🫷
🪨 name "Zhean" 🫷       💭 Error occurs here!

Deletion

A variable or constant can be deleted.

💭 Example: ✂️ <identifier> 🫷
🪨 name "Matthew" 🫷
✂️ name 🫷                 💭 Assuming name is defined
🖊️ name 🫷                 💭 Error occurs here `name` is does not exist!
🪨 name "Zhean" 🫷   💭 `name` can be defined again
🖊️ name 🫷

• ✂️: deletes a variable or constant.

The example above prints out Zhean.