Babble

Babble is a compiled, duck-typed, object-oriented programming language for the Java Virtual machine. It has syntax and semantics inspired by the Smalltalk programming language, but the compile-once-run-anywhere development cycle from Java.

1. Compiling the Babble compiler

To compile the Babble compiler, use Maven:

mvn package

This will also fetch any required dependencies (ANTLR, JUnit, and commons-cli).

When the compilation finishes, babble-0.1-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependencies.jar in the target directory will contain the Babble compiler. We recommend renaming that file to target/babble.jar.

2. Running the test suite

Both unit tests and integration tests can be run with Maven:

mvn verify

Two reports will be shown (one for the unit tests, which are written in Java, and one for the integration tests, i.e. the ones written in Babble). For a graphical report, try mvn site.

3. Compiling programs

Once you have the Babble compiler (see step 1), you can use it to compile Babble programs. Output goes to the target/classes directory by default; this can be changed using the --dest flag, for example:

java -jar target/babble.jar --dest . MyProgram.bla

A --verbose flag is available if you'd like to have a confirmation that something happened.

4. Running Babble programs

You should now have a number of .class files, including MyProgram.class. To run a Babble program (that is, a Babble class that has a main method), make sure the org.twnc.runtime package is on your classpath. In line with the previous example:

java -cp target/babble.jar:. MyProgram