Tranquil

Tranquil is a programming language built on top of LLVM & the Objective-C Runtime.

It aims to provide a more expressive & easy to use way to write Mac and iOS Apps.

It's features include:

Compatibility with C/ObjC headers, meaning that there is no need to create special bindings for C APIs.
Automatic memory management.
Line by line debugging. (Using LLDB or GDB) — still under development, but breaking on, and stepping over source lines is supported
Dynamic Typing.
Language level concurrency support.
String interpolation.
Multiple assignment.
Message cascading.
Unlimited number range.
Unicode through&through (変数=123 works fine)
Good performance, even at this extremely early stage.
And more..

However, Tranquil is still extremely experimental and you shouldn't use it for anything other than fun for now. But to me at least, it is a lot of fun to play with.

How to build and run

The following will install Tranquil into /usr/local/tranquil (Along with a few dependencies).

> curl -fsSkL https://raw.github.com/fjolnir/Tranquil/master/Tools/install.sh | /bin/zsh
> /usr/local/tranquil/bin/tqrepl

Note: OS X ≥ 10.7 or iOS ≥ 5 is required.

Learning the language

To learn more about Tranquil you should read the specification and check out the tests.

You can also talk to me directly by visiting #tranquil on irc.freenode.net.

And here're a couple of examples:

Array iteration

alternatives = ["Objective-C", "Ruby", "Nu", "Perl", "Python"]
alternatives each: `alternative | "Tranquil is nicer than «alternative»" print`
"Or so I hope at least." print

Reduction

sum = (0 to: 1000000) reduce: `obj, accum=0 | obj+accum`

Do two things at the same time

a = async foo()
b = bar()
whenFinished {
    "a is «a» and b is: «b»" print
}

Message chaining (Without having to return self from every method you write)

var = Character new setName: "Deckard"; setOccupation: "Blade Runner"; self

Multiple assignment

a, b = b, a  \ Swap b&a

Non-local returns

a = {
    b = {
        ^^123
    }
    b()
    ^321
}
a() print \ This prints '123'

Calculate fibonacci numbers (In a not-so-performant manner)

fib = `n | n > 1 ? fib(n-1) + fib(n-2) ! n`
fib(10) print

Make a database query (Using DatabaseKit)

import "DatabaseKit"
db = DB withURL: "sqlite://data/database.sqlite"
query = db[#aTable] select: #field; where: { #anotherField => aValue }
val   = query[#field]

\ We can write that more concisely as:
val   = table[{ @anotherField => aValue }][#field]

Create a Web Server (Using HTTPKit)

import "HTTPKit"
HTTP new handleGet: "/"
              with: `connection| "Hello World!"`;
      listenOnPort: 8080
           onError: `"Unable to start server" print`

Evaluate a regular expression

"Foobar starts with foo." print if /foo[a-z]+/i matches: "Foobar"

Using the OpenGL & GLUT APIs

import "GLUT" \ This simply reads in your GLUT.h header. No bindings are required.

GlutInit(0, nil)
GlutInitDisplayMode(GLUT_DOUBLE)
GlutInitWindowSize(640, 480)
GlutInitWindowPosition(200, 200)
GlutCreateWindow("Tranquil is cool as beans!")

GlClearColor(0, 0, 0, 0)
GlScalef(0.4, 0.4, 0.4)

GlutDisplayFunc {
    GlRotatef(0.1, 0, 1, 0)
    GlClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT)
    GlColor3f(0, 1, 0)
        GlutWireDodecahedron()
    GlColor3f(1, 1, 1)
        GlutWireTeapot(0.7)
    GlutSwapBuffers()
}

lastX, lastY = 0
GlutMotionFunc { x, y |
    dx, dy = lastX - x, lastY - y
    GlRotatef(dx, 0, 1, 0)
    GlRotatef(dy, 1, 0, 0)
    lastX, lastY = x, y
}

GlutIdleFunc(GlutPostRedisplay)
GlutMainLoop()

Talking to Cocoa

import "AppKit"

nsapp = NSApplication sharedApplication

\ Create the menubar
quitMenuItem = NSMenuItem new setTitle: "Quit «NSProcessInfo processInfo processName»";
                             setAction: #terminate:;
                      setKeyEquivalent: #q;
                                  self
appMenu     = NSMenu new addItem: quitMenuItem;   self
appMenuItem = NSMenuItem new setSubmenu: appMenu; self
menuBar     = NSMenu new addItem: appMenuItem;    self

nsapp setMainMenu: menuBar

\ Create a little view
@TestView < NSView {
    - init {
        @gradient = NSGradient alloc initWithStartingColor: NSColor redColor
                                               endingColor: NSColor yellowColor
        ^self
    }
    - drawRect: dirtyRect {
        @gradient drawInRect: dirtyRect angle: 45
    }
}
	
\ Create a window
win = (NSWindow alloc initWithContentRect: [[0, 0], [300, 200]]
                                styleMask: (NSTitledWindowMask bitOr: NSResizableWindowMask)
                                  backing: NSBackingStoreBuffered
                                    defer: no)
                                 setTitle: "Tranquil!";
                           setContentView: TestView new;
                                     self

\ Start the app
win makeKeyAndOrderFront: nil
nsapp setActivationPolicy: NSApplicationActivationPolicyRegular
nsapp activateIgnoringOtherApps: yes
nsapp run

vdt / tranquil Goto Github PK

tranquil's Introduction