Apex 26.06

First release of the Apex programming language.

Core Language Features

Syntax & Structure

• Indentation-based blocks: 4-space indentation required for code blocks
• No curly braces or end keywords: Clean, Python-like syntax
• Explicit boolean conditions: All if and for conditions must be explicit boolean expressions (no truthy/falsy values)
• Static typing enforcement: Variable types cannot change after declaration

Data Types

• number: 64-bit floating-point (doubles)
• string: UTF-8 with interpolation ("Hello {name}")
• boolean: true or false
• table: Universal container — ordered arrays and key-value dictionaries
• function: First-class with closures

Variables & Scope

• Dynamic scoping
• Type inference at declaration, enforced thereafter
• Constant optimization: Numeric literals evaluated at compile-time

Operators

• Logical: and, or, not (boolean operands only)
• String concatenation: Via interpolation only (no + for strings)

Control Flow

• If/Elif/Else: Multi-branch with explicit boolean conditions
• For loops: Three variants:
  • Range: for i = start, end [, step]
  • Table iteration: for key = table
  • Condition-based: for condition == true
• Break/Continue
• Return

Functions

• First-class: Assign to variables, pass as arguments
• Nested functions
• Built-in: number(), string(), type()

Tables

• Mixed: Positional items [1, 2, 3] and key-value pairs [name = "Alice"]
• Nested tables

String Interpolation

• Embedded expressions: "Value: {x + y}"
• Escape sequences: \{ and \} for literal braces
• Multiline strings

Modules & Imports

• Import syntax: import module.path
• Module isolation: Separate namespaces
• Built-in modules: os, sys, math, string, table, ffi, random, codecs
• User modules: Subdirectories via dot notation
• Relative paths: Relative to main file

Built-in Libraries

OS (os)

• I/O, time, process control, file/directory operations, permissions

System (sys)

• Platform info, runtime info, system resources, terminal detection

Math (math)

• Constants, rounding, powers/roots, logarithms, trigonometry, number theory

String (string)

• Length, case conversion, substring, search/replace, split/join, trimming

Table (table)

• Manipulation, operations (clear, copy, merge)

FFI (ffi)

• C library loading, function calls, memory management

Random (random)

• Basic generation, seeding, sequence operations, distributions, secure randomness

Codecs (codecs)

• Base64, JSON, CSV, XML encoding/decoding

Development Tools

• Cross-platform builds: Windows, Linux, macOS
• REPL: Interactive development with error context and module support
• Error handling: Compile-time type/undefined/module checks; runtime failure with false; line/column context in messages