Staxlang

A ZISC inspired stack based language / interpreter written in python, providing simple instruction sets for executing programs

Features

• Stack based: Uses variable number of Stacks to store items of varying data types in memory.
• Postfix notation: Use PUSH, POP, PRINT, and arithmetic keywords to perform instructions on the stack using postfix notation.

Installation

• Install python and pip using your OS package manager

• Run

  $ pip install staxlang

Usage

• Create a test file test.stax

stack;
PUSH "Hello World" stack;
PRINT stack;

Execute the program by running

stax test.stax

output:

Hello World

• You can also run the stax program just by itself. This will open in repl mode and you can run arbitrary commands in the interpreter.

>>> stack;
>>> PUSH "Hello World!" stack;
>>> PRINT stack;
Hello World
>>>

Examples

Hello world

Code:

stack;                       # Creating a stack of name "stack"
PUSH "Hello World" stack     # Pushing "Hello World" to the stack
PRINT stack;                 # Printing the topmost variable in the stack

output:

Hello World!

Calculation

Code:

stack;                       # Creating a stack of name "stack"
PUSH 1 stack;                # Pushing 1 to the stack 
PUSH 2 stack;                # Pushing 2 to the stack
ADD stack;                   # Removing the top 2 elements in the stack and pushing its sum to the stack
PRINT stack;                 # Printing the topmost variable in the stack

output:

3

Keywords

Here are a list of keywords in the language

Keyword	Description	Syntax
PUSH	Push a value onto the stack	PUSH VAL ST_NAME;
POP	Pop the topmost value from the stack	POP ST_NAME;
PRINT	Print the top most element in the stack	PRINT ST_NAME;
ADD	Pop the top two elements in the stack and push the sum	ADD ST_NAME;
SUBT	Pop the top two elements in the stack and push the difference	SUBT ST_NAME;
MULT	Pop the top two elements in the stack and push the product	MULT ST_NAME;
DIV	Pop the top two elements in the stack and push the quotient	DIV ST_NAME;
MOD	Pop the top two elements in the stack and push the modulus	MOD ST_NAME;
EXIT	Exit the program	EXIT;

Any other keyword used is considered as the name of a new stack

Legend:

KEY	VALUE
VAL	Any value
ST_NAME	Name of an already defined Stack