npl is the easiest programming language to learn that is not blocky or stinky. You can program like it is just your regular coding session, but with a smaller footprint on your PC, and the most seamless experience for any programmer: fewer deps, more understandable and less syntax, and shorter code for big jobs.
NPL is written in assembly, making it genuinely lightweight from the ground up. The most minimal hardware you can run NPL on is a first-gen Raspberry Pi with 256MB of RAM. Or use mnpl (micro NPL) for microcontrollers, which require a Pi Pico at minimum.
- Easily integrate with any IDE
- Add your plugins and libraries
- Start coding in seconds
- Integrate with different languages
- Experience your code faster than ever
- Run it on any device
See? EASIER.
Libraries? Nahh, we have a librarian. Libraries cover everything: for artists (canvas), math nerds (fath), software and game devs, and more. Just use:
npl librarian -i yourlib
to use our pkg manager, librarian. Here's Python's pkg manager:
python3 -m pip install yourlib --break-system-packages
The most user-friendly TUI you can imagine. For developers: drafts you only need to fill in and distribute. For users: fast, optimized, and sleek.
NPL is the best language for writing installer scripts. Built-in commands, helpers, and a TUI for that. Export as .npl or .sh format. When saved as .sh, if the user does not have NPL installed, a temporary minimal NPL installation starts automatically. When the installer finishes, the temporary NPL gets deleted.
HTML with JS is too complicated. Instead, use HTML, with NPL. The HTML is just a placeholder — the real thing is NPL, with its own libraries to create optimized and good-looking website designs. Write less code, get a better website. Use our automated "htmlizer" tool to compile NPL and HTML into a single file.
Any project works. Use our bridgers and langizers (htmlizer, pyalizer, etc.) to integrate with code written in different languages.
We removed the taxes. You can actually read them now:
Line 33: variable "a" is not defined.
So you do not have to decipher a 200-sentence essay. STF for short. For help, use stfu.
Raspberry Pis and NPL have a lot in common — both are small, but they have big "things" in the bottom. We created a dedicated library for every RPi device: GPIO, chips, system, OS, and optimized NPL for these devices to get the best performance and compatibility ever.
Use the built-in libs to control your PC: media, shell scripts, web fetch, and more.
Build your plugins to patch or extend NPL. Create and export using your IDE, put the file in your project directory, and type:
plug yourplugin
Plug anything, they are not billed.
NPL is a great language to teach in schools, especially for primary school students, for them to truly understand what coding is and to be able to create their own apps and scripts. We have written training data and guides to make even 5-year-olds learn. For beginners, there is a self-debugging IDE built with NPL itself.
Every NPL code generally requires nplm via addlib. — this is the entry point. Order of libraries in addlib does not matter. Execution begins immediately after, top to bottom.
addlib nplm, sh, fath
nplm is generally required. other libs are optional and order-independent.
#this is a comment#
Comments are wrapped in # on both sides. They can appear anywhere on a line.
var a = 1
var name = "nano"
var pi = 3.14
var nothing = none
Variables are declared with var. After declaration, reassignment needs no keyword:
a = a + 1
Types are inferred automatically. NPL supports: integers, floats, strings, and none.
Use curly braces inside a string to interpolate variables:
text("Hello {name}, you are {age} years old.")
Single-line function:
fn add a b = result a + b
Multi-line function:
fn greet name /
text("Hello {name}")
result name
/
Calling a function:
greet "nano"
var total = add 3 5
Rules:
- Arguments are space-separated after the function name.
resultreturns a single value.- Variables declared inside a function are local — they do not exist outside it.
- Global variables are declared outside any function.
- Calling a function that returns a value without catching it discards the value silently.
NPL uses slashes as block delimiters. The slash count represents nesting depth. Opening and closing a block use the same slash count.
if a = 1 / #depth 1#
loop 10 // #depth 2#
while b < 5 / #depth 3, new block inside loop#
b = b + 1
/ #closes depth 3#
// #closes depth 2#
/ #closes depth 1#
if a = 1 /
text("one")
/ else if a = 2 //
text("two")
// else ///
text("other")
///
Each branch in the chain gets one more slash than the previous. The chain is self-documenting — you always know exactly where you are by counting slashes.
Counted loop (repeats N times):
loop 10 /
text("hello")
/
While loop:
while a < 10 /
a = a + 1
wait 0.5
/
| Operator | Meaning |
|---|---|
= |
assignment (var) or equality check (if) |
!= |
not equal |
> |
greater than |
< |
less than |
>= |
greater or equal |
<= |
less or equal |
+ |
addition |
- |
subtraction |
* |
multiplication |
/ |
division |
and |
logical and |
or |
logical or |
not |
logical not |
input("What is your age?"), answer = "age"
text("Your age is: {age}")
Input is autodetected — "10" becomes an integer, "3.14" becomes a float, "hello" becomes a string.
list "my vars" /
2
3
8
/
| Syntax | Result |
|---|---|
"my vars"/-l/ |
all items: 2, 3, 8 |
"my vars"/-l/ 1 |
first item: 2 |
"my vars"/-l/ -1 |
last item: 8 |
"my vars"/-l/ 2:4 |
slice: 3, 8 |
list "my vars" -c |
count: 3 |
"my vars"/-l/ 1 = 99 |
mutate first item to 99 |
Lists can hold mixed types: integers, floats, strings, and none.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
text("...") |
print to terminal |
wait 0.5 |
sleep for 0.5 seconds |
nuke |
force stop the program |
length "hello" |
returns string length (5) |
plug yourplugin |
load a plugin from project dir |
Always required. Contains all core language features: variables, functions, loops, conditionals, lists, input, text, wait, nuke, and length.
Enables shell passthrough. Always uses sh regardless of OS.
addlib nplm, sh
sh> echo "hello from shell"
sh> sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
Output streams directly to the NPL terminal. No capturing — var x = sh> is not valid. Shell errors print as-is and NPL continues.
Full math library covering all standard operations.
| Function | Description |
|---|---|
mod a b |
modulo |
pow a b |
power |
sqrt a |
square root |
floor a |
floor |
ceil a |
ceiling |
round a |
round |
min a b |
minimum |
max a b |
maximum |
abs a |
absolute value |
log a |
logarithm |
sin a |
sine |
cos a |
cosine |
tan a |
tangent |
pi |
constant: 3.14159... |
e |
constant: 2.71828... |
For artists and game developers. Graphics and drawing primitives. (Syntax TBD)
Dedicated library for every RPi device. Covers GPIO, chips, system, OS integration, and hardware-level optimizations for maximum performance and compatibility.
Compile NPL and HTML into a single optimized file. NPL handles all logic, HTML is just a placeholder. Write less code, get a better website.
Integrate NPL with projects written in other languages. Bridgers handle the translation layer between NPL and the target language.
The most user-friendly TUI framework imaginable. For developers: fill-in-the-blank drafts you can distribute immediately. For users: fast, optimized, and sleek. Used for building installer scripts and interactive terminal apps. (Syntax TBD)
Install libraries from the community index before using addlib in your code.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
npl librarian -i libname |
install a library |
npl librarian -r libname |
remove a library |
npl librarian -u libname |
update a library |
npl librarian -info libname |
info about a library |
npl librarian -h |
help |
The librarian pulls from a community-maintained index (a JSON file in a public git repo). Libraries are stored locally. No central server — zero infrastructure cost. Community members submit PRs to add their own tools, libraries, and plugins.
Built-in file operations (part of nplm):
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
read "file.txt" |
read file contents |
write "file.txt" data |
write data to file (overwrites) |
add "file.txt" data |
append data to file |
delete "file.txt" |
delete a file |
NPL does not have try/catch. Errors crash the program and print debug info in plain language. No deciphering required.
Example error output:
Line 33: variable "a" is not defined. Did you forget to declare it with var?
Line 12: function "greet" expects 1 argument, got 0.
Line 7: cannot divide by zero.
STF (SyntaxFree) is the error system. For help, use stfu.
NPL runs on all Unix systems, Windows, and BSD. The sh library always uses sh — on Windows, install sh yourself.
- Minimum hardware: first-gen Raspberry Pi, 256MB RAM.
- Microcontrollers: use
mnpl(micro NPL), Pi Pico minimum. - Compiled output:
.npl
addlib nplm, sh, fath
var a = 1
fn adda = a = a + 1
list "results" /
/
input("What is your name?"), answer = "name"
text("Hello {name}!")
while a < 10 /
adda
wait 0.5
/
text("a is now {a}")
if a = 10 /
text("reached 10!")
sh> echo "done"
/ else //
text("something went wrong.")
//
nuke