Inkling: An Intuitive Programming Language

Introduction

You may not know this, but you already know inkling. Inkling is a programming language that lets you follow your gut- you learn to program by doing what makes sense to you while learning to shift your thinking to grow as a programmer and as a thinker. Speak the language you code. Type what you want to say. Where will your inkling take you today?

Created by Marco B, Cooper LaRhette, Veda Ashok, Sam Gibson, Maya Pegler-Gordon, and Talia Bahar

Compiling Inkling Code

Inkling can currently be transpiled to runnable JavaScript, to do this follow directions below:

1. Install Node.js.
2. Clone the project and run $ npm install and then $ npm test (in the project directory) to ensure everything is working.
3. The command to compile inkling code is: $ node inkling.js [-a] [-o] [-i] <filename>, where:
   • <filename> contains your Inkling code; we have provided test.ink and more example files in docs/
   • flags:
     • the -a flag will show the abstract syntax tree after parsing your code and then stop
     • the -i flag will generate and show the decorated abstract syntax tree and then stop
     • the -o flag optimizes the .js code about to be written to the console (useless if used with other flags)

Features

• Simple and easy
• Statically typed
• Case sensitive
• Arrow functions

Types

• Num
• Text
• Bool
• List
• Dict

Operators

• Add: +
• Subtract: -
• Multiply: *
• Divide: /
• Modulo: %
• Less than or equal: <=
• Less than: <
• Greater than or equal: >=
• Greater than: >
• Equal: ==
• Not equal: !=
• Decrement prefix: --variable
• Increment prefix: ++variable
• Negate: -variable
• Not: !variable
• Decrement postfix: variable--
• Increment postfix: variable++
• Logical AND: and
• Logical OR: or

Semantic Errors

• Type mismatch during declaration or assignment
• Assignment to a variable declared with the 'always' keyword (constants)
• Passing in x number of arguments where the function is declared with y number of parameters and x !== y
• Passing in arguments with wrong type compared to parameter(s) declaration/the function signature
• Indexing out of bounds for lists and dictionaries
• Applying the + operator to variables that are not of type Text or Num
• Having a return in a function that has a return type of Void
• Not returning anything in a function that is declared to return something
• Returning something that is not of the type declared in the function signature
• Trying to iterate through something that is not a list, dictionary, or string in a for loop

Optimizations

• Constant Folding
• Strength Reduction in Prefix Operator & Binary Operators
• Unreachable Code for While Loop
• Assignment Simplification

Code Examples

Variable Declaration

x is Num 5
y is Text “Hello World!”
z is always Num 10

Variable Assignment

y is “Inkling is amazing”

Function Declaration

function helloWorld() is Text {
    gimme "Hello world"
}

function countToX(x is Num) is Void {
    for i is Num in range(0, x) {
        display i
    }
}

x is always (x is Text) is Num => {
    gimme x
}

Ternary

display "negative" if x < 0 else display "positive"

Conditional

if (x % 3 == 0) {
    display "multiple of 3"
}

Loops

For Loop

for i is Num in range(0,10) {
    btw: for-loop execution
}

While Loop

while (x < 0) {
    btw: while-loop execution
}

Comments

btw: this is how you leave a single-line comment

fyi: if you need to leave a multi-line
     you can leave it like this :xoxo

Code Examples

Fibonacci Program

Inkling Example

function fibonacci(x is Num) is Num {
    if (x <= 1) {
        gimme x
    }
    gimme fibonacci(x - 1) + fibonacci(x - 2)
}

JavaScript Example

function fibonacci(x) {
    if (x <= 1) {
        return x;
    }
    return fibonacci(x - 1) + fibonacci(x - 2);
}

Find Factorial Program

Inkling Example

function findFactorial(x is Num) is Num {
    if (x == 0 or x == 1) {
        gimme x
    }
    gimme x * findFactorial(x - 1)
}

JavaScript Example

function findFactorial(x) {
    if (x === 0 || x === 1) {
        return x;
    }
    return x * firstFactorial(x - 1);
}

Fizzbuzz Program

Inkling Example

function fizzbuzz(x is Num) is void {
    for i is Num in range(0, x) {
        if (i % 3 == 0 and i % 5 == 0) {
            display "fizzbuzz"
        } else if (i % 3 == 0) {
            display "fizz"
        } else if (i % 5 == 0) {
            display "buzz"
        } else {
            display i
        }
    }
}

JavaScript Example

function  fizzBuzz(x) {
    for (let  i = 1; i <= x; i++) {
        if (i % 3 === 0 && i % 5 === 0) {
            console.log("fizzbuzz");
        } else  if (i % 3 === 0) {
            console.log("fizz");
        } else  if (i % 5 === 0) {
            console.log("buzz");
        } else {
            console.log(i);
        }
    }
}

Find Greatest Program

Inkling Example

function findGreatest(a is Num, b is Num, c is Num) is Num {
    if (a >= b and a >= c) {
        gimme x
    } else if (b >= a and b >= c) {
        gimme b
    } else {
        gimme c
    }
}

JavaScript Example

function findGreatest(a, b, c) {
    if (a >= b && a >= c) {
        return x;
    } else if (b >= a && b >= c) {
        return b;
    } else {
        return c;
    }
}

Negative Checker

Inkling Example

function negativeChecker(x is Num) is Bool {
    gimme true if x < 0 else false
}

Javascript Example

function negativeChecker(x) {
    return x < 0 ? true : false
}