LangIDE

A macOS IDE for a programming language that reads like English. You write sentences like

task main does
  show quotes Hello, World ends quote
done

LangIDE translates that into intermediate C, parses it, generates real C (or Python or JavaScript), compiles it with cc, runs the binary, and shows you the output.

There's also a browser build that runs the common subset live at j4den.com/langide.

Install

Download the prebuilt app (easiest)

1. Grab the latest LangIDE.app.zip from Releases.
2. Unzip it.
3. Right-click LangIDE.app → Open the first time (Gatekeeper will complain because the build isn't signed; right-clicking lets you bypass it once).
4. After that, double-click as normal.

Build from source

Requires macOS 13+ and Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install).

git clone https://github.com/JadenB9/LangIDE.git
cd LangIDE
./build-app.sh        # produces LangIDE.app
open LangIDE.app

Or just run it without bundling:

swift run

Using it

1. Pick an example from the dropdown (or write your own).
2. Click Run.
3. Output shows up in the right pane. Toggle Debug to see the intermediate C the translator emits before it compiles.

The bottom panel is the language definitions reference. You can add your own English-to-C mappings; they're applied as a preprocessing pass before the translator runs. Toggle Defaults off if you want a from-scratch mode.

Language at a glance

number x is 10              // int x = 10
decimal pi is 3.14          // float pi = 3.14
truth ready is yes          // bool ready = true
talking name quotes Alice ends quote   // string name = "Alice"

if x greater than 5 then
  show quotes big ends quote
otherwise
  show quotes small ends quote
done

repeat for i from 0 to 10 do
  show i
done

task add taking number a and number b gives number does
  give back a plus b
done

task main does
  number sum is call add with 5 and 10
  show sum
done

Full reference in NATURAL_LANGUAGE_SPEC.md.

Operators include all the usual math (plus, minus, times, divided by, modulo), comparisons (greater than, at least, is equal to), logic (and also, or else), bitwise (bitwise and, shift left, …), and a small math library (square root of, X to the power of Y, absolute value of, maximum of A and B). Friendly aliases too: tell me, say, display, remember X as 42, repeat until, count from, wait for N seconds.

How it works

natural English source
        ↓  NaturalLanguageTranslator    (English phrases → C-ish syntax)
intermediate form
        ↓  Lexer                         (text → tokens)
tokens
        ↓  Parser                        (recursive descent → AST)
AST
        ↓  CodeGenerator                 (tracks types; emits C/Python/JS)
generated source
        ↓  Executor                      (cc -lm / python3 / node)
program output

Architectural details and the EBNF grammar live in ARCHITECTURE.md.

Project layout

LangIDE/
├── LangIDEApp.swift              SwiftUI app entry
├── Views/                        Editor, output, definitions UI
├── Compiler/
│   ├── NaturalLanguageTranslator English-to-C preprocessor
│   ├── Lexer                     Tokenizer
│   ├── Parser                    Recursive descent
│   ├── CodeGenerator             C / Python / JavaScript backends
│   ├── Executor                  Shells out to cc / python3 / node
│   └── LanguageCompiler          Pipeline orchestrator
└── Models/                       Tokens, AST nodes, language mappings

Requirements

• macOS 13.0 or newer
• Xcode 15.0 or newer (or just the Command Line Tools for cc / Swift PM)
• For Python target: python3 on $PATH
• For JavaScript target: node on $PATH

License

MIT — see LICENSE.