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RuneLang

Quick Start

Let’s write a RuneLang program from scratch. Create a file called hello.rune:

Hello, Adventurer

Section titled “Hello, Adventurer”
Chant("Hail, adventurer! Welcome to RuneLang.");

Run it:

Terminal window
runelang hello.rune

Output:

Hail, adventurer! Welcome to RuneLang.

Chant is RuneLang’s print function. It outputs text to the console.

Variables

Section titled “Variables”
// immutable by default
Runestone name is "Gandalf";
Countstone level is 20;
Potion crit_chance is 0.15;
Flagstone is_wizard is Truth;


Chant(name + " is level " + level);


// mutable variables require the Mutable keyword
Mutable Countstone health is 100;
health is written as health - 25;
Chant("Health: " + health);

Your first Ritual

Section titled “Your first Ritual”

Functions in RuneLang are called Rituals:

Ritual greet(Runestone hero_name) begins
    Chant("Welcome, " + hero_name + "! Your quest awaits.");
end of Ritual


greet("Aragorn");
greet("Legolas");

Control flow

Section titled “Control flow”
Mutable Countstone gold is 50;


// quest (if/else)
Quest begins when (gold >= 100)
    Chant("You can afford the legendary sword!");
elsewise when (gold >= 50)
    Chant("You can afford a decent shield.");
elsewise
    Chant("You're broke. Go fight some goblins.");
end of Quest


// odyssey (for loop)
Odyssey for i from 1 to 4 is
    Chant("Round " + i + " - FIGHT!");
end of Odyssey


// vigil (while loop)
Mutable Countstone arrows is 3;
Vigil whilst arrows > 0 is
    Chant("*fires arrow* (" + arrows + " left)");
    arrows is written as arrows - 1;
end of Vigil

Collections

Section titled “Collections”
// scroll (array)
Mutable Scroll inventory is ["Sword", "Shield", "Potion"];
inventory.push("Bow");
Chant("Inventory: " + inventory);
Chant("First item: " + inventory[0]);


// tome (map / dictionary)
Tome stats is {"str": 18, "dex": 14, "con": 16};
Chant("Strength: " + stats["str"]);

Error handling

Section titled “Error handling”
Trap begins
    Countstone result is 10 / 0;
Evade (err)
    Chant("Caught error: " + err);
end of Trap

What’s next?

Section titled “What’s next?”

You’ve got the basics. Dive deeper: