marlb

A minimal esoteric programming language for making simple melodies. The name is suggested by my friend LOL!

Getting Started

Requirements:
Python version: 3.10
Platform: Windows 10

git clone https://github.com/bennett-nguyen/marlb.git

File extension: *.marble

Interpret a file to sounds using the command:
python marlb.py -m interpret -f path/to/file

I wrote some script files and stored it in ./test, run whatever script you want

Syntax

Comment: notated by ", any code that stands after " will be ignored (although any character that this interpreter doesn't recognize will be considered as a comment as well, using a comment notation is still a best practice)

Playing notes: Any character in the list below will play a specific note
q: C
a: C#

w: D
s: D#

e: E

r: F
d: F#

u: G
j: G#

i: A
k: A#

o: B

p: C (higher pitch)

Functional commands: Any character in the list below will do a certain task to affect how notes are played

default:
  pitch_level: 2
  duration: 200ms

+: Increase pitch level by 1 (meaning the pitch of the note will get higher, max level: 16)
-: Decrease pitch level by 1 (meaning the pitch of the note will get lower, min level: 1)
>: Increase duration by 100ms (meaning the length of playing a note will increase, max duration: 15s)
<: Decrease duration by 100ms (meaning the length of playing a note will decrease, min duration: 0ms)
!: Stop the execution for 0.5 seconds
:: Reset duration and pitch_level to default (i.e pitch_level: 2, duration: 200ms)

Update

See CHANGELOG.md

Tutorial

Today I'll instruct you to write happy birthday song in marlb for someone important to you :D
I'll assume that you have cloned this repository and got the interpreter so let's get started.

First, create a file that ends with .marble (in any directory you want). Open that file with your prefered text editor.
Then, get the music sheet of this song so you can convert each note in that song to marlb code

I have a music sheet down here so you don't have to waste your time doing it.

Convert each note to marlb command (e.g D will be converted to w, E will be converted to e, etc.), you can seperate each line of lyric and space out each command for readability.


You'll also notice that the 3rd D note on the 3rd line is higher than other D's; to deal with that, increase the pitch level by 2 for that note then decrease it after that like this:

But there's no break between each line so when you play it, you'll hear notes being played continuously; to prevent that, add a ! at the end of each line so the program will sleep 0.5 seconds before executing the next line.

Now save your file and copy the path that leads to your file as text and open powershell (or command prompt), then cd into the directory that the cloned repository is located. Interpret your text file using this command:
python marlb.py -m interpret -f paste/the/path/here

In my case, both the interpreter and my source file are in D:\work_dir_3 (i.e same directory) so my command would be like:

>>> D:\
>>> cd work_dir_3
>>> python marlb.py -m interpret -f ./happy_birthday.marble

(If your file name has a whitespace character then put it in quotes when you're about to interpret it e.g python marlb.py -m interpret -f "path/to/file")
(You can use an absolute path or relative path that leads to your file as well)

Press enter and enjoy your music :]