ASCIIscript

ASCIIscript is an imperative, stack-based language based on the concept of a small instruction set created in 2026. Being a small language, it relies upon a small group of commands. Its goals consist of making source code more concise and readable, and hence allowing more code to be written at faster speeds.

ASCIIscript's logo.

Inspiration

ASCIIscript was inspired by aspects of C, Haskell, and lambda calculus.

Computational model

ASCIIscript is based upon lambda calculus but primarily uses a mix of models.

Commands

d A.x :: [ DEFINES A WITH PARAMETER X ]
  p x; [ PRINTS X ]
  x := n; [ PUTS USER INPUT IN X ]
  i x = 0 :: [ IF X = 0 ]
    p x; [ PRINT X ]
  w x < 10 :: [ WHILE X < 10 ]
    x := x + 1; [ INCREMENT X ]
  y.5; [ INIT 5-LONG ARRAY AT Y, BEGIN AS 0 ]
  w z < S.y :: [ WHILE Z (INIT AT 0) < SIZE OF Y ]
    y.z := z; [ Y[Z] = Z ]
    z := z + 1; [ INCREMENT Z ]
  u z; [ PUSH Z TO STACK ]
  o z; [ POP FROM STACK AND PUT IN Z]
  a := r script.asc; [ PUT SCRIPT.ASC IN A ]
  w "Hello!" a; [ WRITE "Hello!" TO SCRIPT.ASC]
  h x; [ HALT WITH X ]

Syntax

ASCIIscript uses semicolons, like C, to end lines and to make it easier to implement. However, unlike C, there are no curly braces. Instead, a block is began with :: and is maintained using indentation. If a function begins with F.xy, that means it has two variables: x and y. When a new variable is mentioned, it is initialised to 0 automatically.

Examples

Hello world

d H. ::
  p "Hello world!";
  h 0;

Factorial

d F.x ::
  y := x;
  z := 1;
  w y > z ::
    x := x * z;
    z := z + 1;
  h x;

Cheating quine

d Q. ::
  x := r quine.asc;
  p x;
  h 0;