Zang

Zang is a dynamically typed high level programming language.
<< Zang's Mascot, Sid

Official Website

To see the official zang website click on this!

Running a script

To run a script must go into the command prompt and make sure your working directory has your script you want to run and the run.py file and the intepreter.py file. Then run. python run.py yourfile.zang and it will run

Starting the shell

To start the shell simply run, in the command line python shell.py and thats it

Accesing Shell history

You can acess the shell history by typing in ac.history Like so:

Text Editor

I would highly recommend using the text editor to write your programs, it has syntax highlighting and a built in terminal to do everything you need to do, it is very useful to use and is a great tool to help you write better Zang. This is what a simple fibbonachi sequence and fizzbuzz in Zang's Text editor

Showing Speed

When you run your zang program, it wont, by default display the speed, to enable to display the speed, you have to include -s when running, so for example

C:\Users\User\Desktop\Projects\zang>py src/run.py examples/libtest.zang -s
Hello, World!
0
Zang executed in 0.00
C:\Users\User\Desktop\Projects\zang>py src/run.py examples/libtest.zang
Hello, World!
0

Using ZPM

ZPM is the Zang Package Manager and is how you can download any standard zang library from your command line. To use it, type in:

C:\Users\User\Desktop\Projects\zang>py zpm/zpm.py install library

This will download the library to your working directory.
ZPM can only download the libraries in examples/using/libraries dir which are the official libraries, if you want to make a zang library, just upload it to the examples/using/libraries dir!

You can also download several libraries at once

C:\Users\User\Desktop\Projects\zang>py zpm/zpm.py install library1 library2

Or you can download all the libraries at once

C:\Users\User\Desktop\Projects\zang>py zpm/zpm.py everything

If you download all the libraries, they will be saved in the using/ folder in your directory

Tutorial

Your first Zang Program

Your first Zang program will be a simple hello world program, all it does is output hello world to the console. To output any value to the std.output you would do writeln to write a line and then your value between the corresponding brackets, so a simple hello world program would look like this:

writeln("Hello, World!")

There it is, now save it, run it and see what it outputs, it should output

Hello, World!

Variables

Variables are pretty simple, to allocate memory into a variable you would use the let keyword, like this:

let message = "Hello, World!"

now you can output this to make another hello world program, this time using variables, like this:

let message = "Hello, World!"
writeln(message)

This, once again should output

Hello, World

For loops

A little step up from the past 2 programs we made, this program we made will include a loop, How exciting! This specific one we will make will count up to 100 and output the numbers:

for i = 0 to 100 then
   writeln(i)
end

When you run this you should get numbers 0-99 being outputted to your console.

Endless Loop?!?

Yes, we can do an endless while true loop with Zang:

while True then
  writeln("Endless!")
end

-Note: I dont suggest running this as it will print "Endless!" to the console forever, but if you want to, go for it!

Reading Input

To read input you just have to do read("") to gather input. Make sure you have a string, cannot be an empty bracket. For example:

let x = read(">")
writeln(x)
let x = read_int(">")
writeln(x+x)

Colors!

I specifically wanted it to be easy to print in colored formats in Zang, so i made an easy color library implemented into it. An example of it would be like this:

writeln(col_red+"Red Text!"+col_reset)
writeln(col_purple+"Purple Text!"+col_reset)
writeln(col_blue+"Blue Text!"+col_reset)
writeln(col_yellow+"Yellow Text!"+col_reset)
writeln(col_green+"Green Text!"+col_reset)

-Note: It is important to include the col_reset at the end of every color line, otherwise it wont know the bounds and will print everything in that color from there on, you have to tell it where to stop coloring text

Lets make another, better program

With all this newgiven knowledge, lets write a simple echo program, which takes input from a user, stores it in a variable and then outputs that variable in colored, formatted text:

while True then
   let echo = read(">>")
   writeln(col_purple+echo+col_reset)
end

This isnt too complex but is still a fun program to mess around in.

CMD Interop

Zang can interop with cmd systems to pass commands through to the cmd line! It can do some pretty powerful things so be careful with it, this is how it looks:

passc("start cmd") 

This will pass the command "start cmd" to the command line.

Command app with Zang

We can now make a simple program with the Zang system library:

while True then
   let echo = read(col_purple+"Command>"+col_reset)
   passc(echo)
end

This is a simple command line made in Zang.

Put?

There are 2 ways mainly to write to the std output. These would be writeln and put and there is an important difference between these.
put will print a value with no newline, meaning that if you did:

put("hello")
put("world")

It would output

helloworld

Whereas if you did this with writeln:

writeln("hello")
writeln("world")

It would output

hello
world

System Messages

Adding again to the extensive system library we can do a system message, that looks like this:

The way you can do this is very easy, its just msg so a program that uses it would look like this:

msg("Hello, Zang!")

Its a very interesting tool to use and can be usd in many projects to display user sucess or error messages

Web Interop

Just like Zang can interop with Cmd, it can also interop with your native web browser and allows you to open any url you want from Zang, it looks like this:

let url = read("What url do you want to open: ")
opentab(url)

Types

You can get the type of something by calling classof, here is an example:

writeln(classof([1,2,3]))
writeln(classof(1))
writeln(classof(1.1))
writeln(classof(True))
writeln(classof("String!"))

This will output:

array
number
number
number
string

This is because floats and ints share a class, for simplicity and boolean is equal to a number, 1 is true and 0 is false, this is why if you do True + True, it outputs 2. This little program prompts a user for a url to open and then opens whatever they enter.

Functions

Functions are done with the fn keyword and dont require a then keyword, let me show you a function which multiplies 2 numbers

fn multiply_nums(num1, num2)
   writeln(num1*num2)
end

multiply_nums(5,10)

This would output:

50

Functions can also return values

Raising Errors

To raise an error, you can use the `error keyword like this:

error("This is a raised error!")

Comments

To do comments you would use a hashtag (#) for example:

writeln("hello") # Comment right here!
put("Bye!") # Another comment!

-Note: It is important to know that there has to be a newline under the comment, otherewise the interpreter cannot look for a "\n" to stop parsing the comment. Sorry, i know this is bad but it would be better then a grouping based comment system.

Importing a file

You can import a file through zang using the using keyword. Like this

using("main.zang")
init()

Given that you have defined any function in your code, you can call it after using it. Make sure everything in your file is within a function though, otherwise anything in the global scope will run on import.
If you go to examples/include you will see all the external libraries for zang and examples of them being imported and used in the main.zang file. Descriptions of these:

All libraries

1. win.zang - A windows interop library
2. bettermath.zang - A math library to improve the std math lib.
3. zecl.zang - Zang Expanded Color Library expands the already large inbuilt color library and doesnt require closing tags, it goes from writeln(col_red+"red"+col_reset to writeln(red("red")). If you are making a program in zang with alot of color change, i would suggest using zecl.zang
4. demos.zang - A library full of zang demos with things like fizzbuzz to a number, counting up, name printing programs and more.
5. c_interop.zang - A library that allows you to run c code, by calling compile(yourprogram.c).
6. py_interop.zang - A library that allows you to run python code through zang
7. tooey.zang - A library full of drawing with ascii to make a nice TUI, it includes circles, squares, triangles, caps, ovals and crescent shapes.
8. yt.zang - A library for searching on youtube. Will do just that, search for a video on youtube and then open that url.
9. googlesearch.zang - A library with the abillity to search on google.
10. user.zang - A library with low level info about the user, acessed through the passc keyword.
11. frun.zang - A library that allows you to run a file through the zang interpreter with the zang_i keyword.
12. betterstring.zang - A library with better string utillity, reccomended for bigger projects.
13. datetime.zang - A library with the date and the time, if you couldnt guess it. Accurate to the systems time and date to the dot.
14. badgui.zang - A mini-bad graphics library that can ONLY open a window with a title, you should ideally use the inbuilt zang gui library, not badgui, but its fun to mess about in.
15. malware.zang - A malware library with malware tools [THIS IS FOR EXAMPLE USE ONLY PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS FOR ANYTHING ELSE EXCEPT SEEING HOW WINDOWS INTEROPERABILITY WORKS!!!]
16. py.zang - As oppose to py_interop.zang (DEPRECATED) this doesnt run a python file but instead executes single lines of python, like an exec function.

***ALL OF THESE LIBRARIES CAN BE DOWNLOADED REMOTELY WITH ZPM (Zang Package Manager) If you make any Zang library please! Add it to the `examples/include/libraries` and edit the `main.zang` to include it, i would love for some community libraries! Any library you upload to the directory will be immediately downloadble with ZPM!

Nil values

To use Nil values in Zang its as simple as just using nil like this:

let x = nil
writeln(nil)

Multiline Statements

You can write any Zang program in one line using a semicolon, like this:

let x = 100; let x = tostr(x); writeln(x*3); msg(x*3)

Type conversion

You can convert alot of things, for example:

toint("5")
tofloat("5")
tofloat(5)
tostr(tofloat(5))

This would output:

5
5.0
5.0
"5.0"

Arrays

To define an array you just have to type whatever you want within [] like this:

let list = [1,2,3]

We can do some things with this array, if we want to get an element of the array, and remove it we must pop from the index and that will take it out of the array and store it in whatever else you want. Here is an example:

let list = [1,2,3]
let middle = pop(list, 1)
writeln(middle)
writeln(list)

This would output:

2
1,3

But, this removes it from the array, if you just want to get the element and not remove it, you can use the get function, for example:

let arr = [1,2,3,4,5]
let x = get(arr, 2)
writeln(x)
writeln(arr)

this would output:

3
[1,2,3,4,5]

That is how you can get elements, there are more tools, such as extend, which will extend an array with another array, for example:

let list = [1,2,3]
let list2 = [4,5,6]
extend(x, y)
writeln(x)

This will output:

[1,2,3,4,5,6]

You can also traditionally append elements to an array, for example:

let list = ["My", "name is"]
append(list, "Jack")
writeln(list)

This would output:

["My", "name is", "Jack"]

You can also split a string into words with the split keyword, like this:

let string = "Hello/World !!!"
writeln(split(string, "/" ))

This would output:

["Hello", "World !!!"]

And last but not least, you can get the length of an array with the len keyword, for example:

let list = [1,2,3]
writeln(len(list))

This would return:

3

Random Library

I will soon expand the inbuilt random library because as of now, all it can do is generate a random float between 0-1. But to call this, you just do:

writeln(random)

Math Library

There are two inbuilts within the Library, there is Pi and inf. Inf is an infinite number and pi is 3.14159265, this is how you can acess them

writeln(math_inf)
writeln(math_pi)

In addition to the inbuilts there are 3 functions, math_cos, math_sin and math_todeg, for example:

let x = math_cos(50)
let y = math_sin(50)
let degrees = math_todeg(x+y)

Because the cosine and sine functions output a radian based result, you can use todeg() to convert them back

Gui Library

The gui library is small to to open a window with the specified size you would do:

zgui_open("Title", 200, 200)

The library will be expanded, you can also use the badgui library which was actually made in zang, you can get it by going to examples/using/libraries, (btw, every single library ever made with and in zang is avalible in that directory on this page, its like a package index, to see how to use and import it go here)

String Library

There is a small string library that is included that includes punctuation, letters and digits. Here is an example:

writeln(string_punct)
writeln(string_letters)
writeln(string_digits)

There is also a string manipulation tool, trim to trim whitespace off either side of the string, an example:

let untrimmed = "    hello     "
let trimmed = trim(untrimmed)
if trimmed == "hello" then
     writeln("Trim works!")
end

There is also another string manipulation too, find to find the string between 2 characters:

let string = "hello, my name is <<jack>> and this is an example of @@regex??"
writeln(find(string, "<<" ">>"))
writeln(find(string, "@@","??"))

Sys Library

There is an inbuilt Zang/sys library which has things like the link to the github, the version, the platform, the argv list and the sys version its running on, to call it, all you have to do is:

writeln(zang_link)
writeln(zang_platform)
writeln(zang_version)
writeln(zang_argv)
writeln(zang_sysv)

zang_i

zang_i is part of the sys library and is an interpreter function, lets say you have some zang code, you can interpret that into tokens, its like the compile function in python, heres an example:

let code = "tostr(trim(writeln(5+5)))"
let tokens = zang_i(code)
writeln(tokens)

This is a very interesting function that tokenises whatever you pass into it. So for example the program above would output:

IDENTIFIER:tostr, LPAREN, IDENTIFIER:trim, LPAREN, IDENTIFIER:writeln, LPAREN, INT:5, PLUS, INT:5, RPAREN, RPAREN, RPAREN, EOF

zang_eval

zang_eval is ofcourse part of the system library but actually runs zang code you pass into it, unlike zang_i, what you pass into it does not have to be a string and in addition, zang eval doesnt just output the tokenised text, it actually runs it, for example:

zang_eval(writeln("Hello world!"))

File Library

As of the latest update the file library is small. It has 3 functions, openf, using and writef, we looked at using already, but in short, using takes in a .zang file and imports it so you can use it, like import with python. On the other hand openf will open, read and close a file and writef will open the file (or create it), and write to it, and close it.

let filename = read("What file do you want to print: ")
let contents_of_file = open(filename)
writeln(contents_of_file)

This program takes in a file, reads the files content, and then prints that content.

let filename = read("What file do you want to create: ")
let contents_to_write = read("What do you want to write into "+filename+": ")
writef(filename, contents_to_write)

Requests Library

As of the latest update the rq library is a little light, containing POST, GET and HTML For example:

rq_post("https://google.com", "elem")
rq_get("https://google.com")
rq_html("https://google.com")

This program will send a post request for elem (not defined) then get google.com, and then get the raw, source html for google.com with rq_html
More request-based stuff soon!

Czang

As of the latest version you can compile your zang code to machine code with czang. There is one caveat to this, czang code is different to vanilla zang, let me show you some comparisons

Vanilla Zang:

fn test()
   let msg = "Hello, World!"
   writeln(msg)
end

Czang:

fn test(): None
   let msg = "Hello, World!"
   writeln msg
end

So the main difference is that czang does not use parenthesis and also requires a return type when defining a function. Theres a couple more differences, for example:

Vanilla Zang:

let name = read("Whats your name?")
writeln("Hello, "+name)

Czang:

writeln "Whats your name?"
let name = read_str
writeln "Hello, "
writeln name

Here, the difference is that because czang gets compiled to raw c code (Will talk more about that) it has some things to note:

1. Newlines are not added to the end of lines, so if you want to print something with a newline you have to add it yourself, the writeln function in czang is the put function in vanilla zang, think about it that way
2. read_str and read_int are the ways of getting input, unlike in vanilla zang, you have to specify the type of input your getting.
3. You cannot do stringvar + stringvar2, concat fetures are not supported by zangc.
4. Zangc only supports functions, variable allocation, loops, printing, input, inbuilt.

Here are some more examples

Vanilla Zang:

let x = read()
if x+10 == 20 then
   writeln("You entered 10!")
   writeln(x)
end

elif x+10 != 20 then
    writeln("You did not enter 10!")
    writeln(x)
end

Zangc

let x = read_int
if x+10 == 20
   writeln "You entered 10!\n"
   writeln "%d", x
end
elif x+10 != 20
    writeln "You did not enter 10!"
    writeln "%d", x
end

Some of the differences you will see here are:

1. There is no "then" identifyer in the loops, it just does it automatically.
2. When printing any number value you have to add: "%d", to the start before you print your number. This goes for variables aswell, this is just a formatter.

How to compile a czang file

To compile a czang file, first make sure you have the gcc compiler on your path and thats it. Then run the normal zang run.py file but include -c to compile it. If you want to see the translated c code just include -code aswell. Heres an example:

C:\Users\User\Desktop\Projects\zang>py src/run.py examples/helloworld.zang
Hello, World
0

That is how you would normally run a zang file, this is how you would compile a czang file:

C:\Users\User\Desktop\Projects\zang>py src/run.py czang/main.czang -c
czang/main.czang compiled in 0.125s

C:\Users\User\Desktop\Projects\zang>czang/main.exe
Hello, World!
C:\Users\User\Desktop\Projects\zang>

This is how you compile and run a czang file.
If you want to display the c code it got translated to, include -code, for example

C:\Users\User\Desktop\Projects\zang>py src/run.py czang/main.czang -c -code
<<-- czang/main.c -->>
#include <stdio.h>
#define math_pi "%f", 3.14159
#define zang_argv "%s", "['src/run.py', 'czang/main.czang', '-c', '-code']"
#define zang_vers "%s", "V/0.45\n"
#define zang_platform "%s", "win32\n"
#define zang_link "%s", "https://github.com/cmspeedrunner/zang\n"
struct None {};
typedef struct None None;int main(){
printf( "Hello, World!" );
return 0;}
czang/main.czang compiled in 0.106s
C:\Users\User\Desktop\Projects\zang>

And thats it, czang doesnt support too much standard zang functions as of now, i dont plan to make this better anytime soon, but its just a cool offshoot.

MacOS 11.1+ Executable Support

MacOS users running OSX version 11 (BigSur) or newer have the option to use an executable located in /src/osx_dist/ to run zang programs. To use, put the executable in the same directory as your program and run it using ./zang your_program.zang. Note processing may take more time using this method.

Thats All Folks!

Thats all to see here, Zang is just a little intermediate language for until i create my own compiled language, which will be much better. Thank you for reading and join to our discord server