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Looks like JavaScript, feels like Ruby, and it is a script language fitting in C programmers.

Introduction

Ruby is a major scripting language. Also Python is. However, either of these syntax is NOT familiar to C programmers. This Kinx is a script language for people who want C-like syntax.

Features

Language Basic Concept

• Extendable. Contributers are able to extend features easily for your own use.
• Lightweight. You can start using this without a lot of work.
• Small. Using C instead of C++. I love C++ but runtime is big in some cases.
• Object-Oriented. Of course you can do the object-oriented programming.
• C style syntax... no it is JavaScript style syntax rather than C, but it is also good.
• Dynamic typing, but you can also specify the type.
• Native function by JIT compiling supported with some limitations. Very fast.
• Classes and inheritance, Higher order functions, Lexical scoping, Closures, Fiber, Garbage Collection, and so on.
• Isolate object to control native threads without GIL (Global Interpreter Lock).
• Including useful libraries as All-In-One. See details below.
• REPL is provided by default.
• Useful Testing System named as SpecTest. It is designed to not only for Kinx but also for any other products.

Standard Libraries

The script language is a platform as a glue between libraries. This means a language itself is not a main purpose, it should be just a backend or supporter due to use a library you want to use.

Therefore another design goal for this language is to be extendable, lightweight, and easy to use for user's own purpose. Kinx will be able to be the best platform for any libraries which you want to use or your own library.

Kinx is including useful libraries below in the standard package as All-In-One.

• Zip ... Zip/Unzip with not only zip password but also AES password.
• Xml ... Supporting XML as DOM structure.
• libCurl ... Only HTTP has been already implemented.
• SSH ... SSH login and you can execute commands.
• Socket ... Supporting a simple TCP/UDP socket.
• Iconv ... Converting between text encodings.
• SQLite3 ... Database class as a usuful library wapping SQLite3.
• Regular Expression ... Regular expression is of course supported.
• Parser Combinator ... Exactly original implementation of Parser Combinator named as Parsek like Parsec.
• PDF ... PDF core library based on HaruPDF.
• Typesetting ... Simple and Tiny Typesetting library by PDF core library. See the User's Guide (PDF).
• JIT ... JIT library for various platforms by an abstracted assembler library.

Making libraries improvement and extension is one of the main purpose of this language.

Language Details

There is Quick Reference Guide. Please see Quick Reference Guide for your understanding.

For the detail of Kinx specification, see Kinx Specification. This document is also including Test Codes. I named this system as SpecTest. See SpecTest for detail.

And you can try it on the REPL. See REPL for detail.

Motivation

I guess almost all programmers want a lightweight scripting language with C style syntax because it is simple, easy, and familiar to them. C style syntax is the most fitting in the programmer's hand, I guess.

Any other languages are also all good solution, but for me...

• Ruby is great. But it is too far from C style. Too many typing for end.
• Python is also great. But it is too far from C style. Indentend style is a little cramped and too many typing for self.
• JavaScript is very good for me, and it is a C like style. But node.js is too heavy.

What is C Style Syntax?

Sharing the definition of C Style Syntax, it is below.

• Block is a scope between { and }
• Mostly freedom style of indent.
• Fall through in switch case.
  • There are pros and cons anyway.
  • But a C programmer will feel it to continue to the next when there is no break.
  • I will wait for any proposals about this anytime.
• etc.

For example that is C, C++, Java, JavaScript, C#, and so on. If you agree, or if you don't agree, anyway push the star.

Getting Started

How to Build

IMPORTANT
If you faced a crash of the kinx executable, please try make clean all to re-build everything. Sometimes changing a structure in common header will cause a crash because dependencies in Makefile are imcomplete.

Windows

On Windows, tested with Visual Studio 2017 Express Edition with x64. To build, see below.

$ make.cmd

Note that on Windows, compiling ir_exec.c takes long time around 15 minutes, so please wait for it. It is no problem on Linux because it is around 2 or 3 minutes.

Linux

On Linux, tested with gcc 7.4.0 with x64. To build, see below.

$ make

How to Execute

Usage

# For Windows
$ kinx.exe [options] [<script-file>]

# For Linux
$ ./kinx [options] [<script-file>]

Options

Here is current available options.

Option	Description
-h	Display help.
-v, --version	Display version number.
-d	Dump compiled code.
-D	Display AST.
-i	Input source code from stdin.
-c	Check the syntax only without any executions.
-q	Do quiet mode without displaying warning & error, and exit code 0 means successful.
--dot	Display the dump by .dot format.
--with-native	Dump compiled code of a native function. Use with -d.
--native-call-max-depth	Specify the max depth to call a native function. 1024 by default.
--case-threshold	Specify the max interval between case's integer value. 16 by default.
--exec:repl	Run the Repl.
--exec:spectest	Run the SpecTest.

Examples

You will think it is like JavaScript.

Fibonacci

function fib(n) {
    if (n < 3) return n;
    return fib(n-2) + fib(n-1);
}

System.println("fib(34) = ", fib(34));

Factorial

function fact(n) {
    if (n < 1) return 1;
    return n * fact(n-1);
}

System.println(fact(5000));

Class

class Example(i) {
    public get() { return i; }
}

System.println(new Example(100).get());

Native

What is Native function?

Remember the fibonacci function above. That is a simple fibonacci function and execute it with time measurement like below.

$ time ./kinx examples/fib.kx
fib(34) = 9227465

real    0m0.718s
user    0m0.609s
sys     0m0.000s

Replace function to native. That's all.

native fib(n) {
    if (n < 3) return n;
    return fib(n-2) + fib(n-1);
}

System.println("fib(34) = ", fib(34));

Let's execute it and measure it!

$ time ./kinx examples/native_fib.kx
fib(34) = 9227465

real    0m0.167s
user    0m0.063s
sys     0m0.016s

How nice it is around 10x faster.

But you have to know the limitations with native function. See Native Functions for details.

REPL

You can use REPL (Read-Eval-Print-Loop) with the option of --exec:repl as below.

$ ./kinx --exec:repl

Here is a demo animation. REPL has an autocomplete by [TAB] key. See REPL for details.

Have fun with it!

Output with Dot

Kinx accepts --dot option for outputting by .dot format as below.

digraph fib {
        node [fontname="Courier_New",fontsize=10,style="setlinewidth(0.1)",shape=record];
        edge [fontname="Courier_New",fontsize=10,style="setlinewidth(0.1)"];
        label="fib"
        labelloc="t"
        L2020 [label="{ \.L2020 | enter 19, vars(1), args(1) }"];
        L2021 [label="{ \.L2021 | if $0(0) \>= 3 goto \.L2023 }"];
        L2022 [label="{ \.L2022 | ret $0(0) }"];
        L2023 [label="{ \.L2023 | sub_v0i $0(0), 2 | call $1(57), 1 | sub_v0i $0(0), 1 | call $1(57), 1 | add | ret }"];
        L2020:s -> L2021:n;
        L2021:s -> L2023:n;
        L2021:s -> L2022:n;
}

Extending Functionalities

You can add the functionalities easily. Basic strategy is to add the dll following by some rules.

First, you use using directive like this.

using YourLibrary;

This means to load YourLibrary.kx. The library is searched by the order below.

• Current directory.
• The same directory as executable of kinx.
• The child lib directory of a directory of kinx executable.
• The child lib directory of a parent directory of kinx executable.

If you want to use your own yourlibrary.dll, write the code below inside YourLibrary.kx.

var YourLibrary = _import("yourlibrary");

• About a dll rule is like below.
  • See kxstring.c for single object. It will be very simple example.
  • See kxregex.c for class definition. Just defines a create method for new operator.

For new operator, new A is just alias of A.create. See Class Design for how class works.

TODO

See ChangeLog.md for a current status.

Undocumented Memo

For specification, see Kinx Specification. But now there is no document about following items. I will write it as soon as possible.

libCurl

Now libcurl package is included in Kinx. example Simple HTTP Get client library is net/http.kx in lib/std folder from kxnet.kx. This is very poor but will be easy to upgrade it.

Simple HTTP Get client is also http.kx in example folder.

Note that OpenSSL is also included. OpenSSL version is 3.0.0, which is not released officially but means the license is Apache 2.0.

Namespace

Namespace is now available. See the example of examples/namespacex.kx

eval

eval() is now supported. You can run the code of string on the fly. The eval's arguments are assigned to $$ like command line arguments as an array.

using directive

You can use using to include another source file.

using dir.to.path.file1;
using? dir.to.path.file2;

When you use using and the file is not found, it will make it error. When you use using? instead, it will be ignored without errors even if the file is not found.

The library is searched by the following order.

• Current directory.
• The same directory as executable of kinx.
• The child lib directory of a directory of kinx executable.
• The child lib directory of a parent directory of kinx executable.

Alternative Function Call Value

When you call someMethod but methodMissing occurs for an object, searching a _someMethod property and use the value of it if found. It is sometimes reasonable because you do not have to define the function.

var obj = { _msg: "message" };
System.println(obj.msg()); # => print out "message".

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details. About the licenses of internal used libraries, follow the licenses of each library. See docs/licenses folder for details.