A statically typed, garbage collected language that runs on a custom stack based vm. Elsa is written just for fun(and educational purposes) and is not really intended for actual use.
Bouncy: A Breakout clone written in Elsa
Download the latest release from here. Then just run "elsa bouncy/main.elsa" from the command line
// The main function is the entry point of all Elsa programs and is always required
fn main() {
}
// A function that takes no arguments and returns void
fn hello() {
PrintLn("Hello world!");
}
// A function that takes an integer argument and returns an integer
fn returnInt(int x) : int {
return x;
}
When passing arguments to functions all built-in types are passed by value while structs and arrays are passed by reference(pointers)
// All types of functions(including member functions) in Elsa are treated as any other
// "object" and can be passed around and assigned to variables.
// If a functions uses any variables or fields from the context in which it was declared
// the function will keep a reference to that variable or field
var x = 10;
// A function that takes no arguments and returns the integer captured from the outer scope
var ret = fn : int => { return x; };
// A function that takes no arguments, returns void and increments the captured variable by 1
var inc = fn => { x = x 1; };
inc(); // x is now 11
PrintLn(ret()); // Prints 11
// A function that takes another function(taking no arguments and returns void) as an argument
// and invokes the passed function twice
fn callTwice(fn f) {
f();
f();
}
callTwice(inc); // callTwice will call our inc function twice
PrintLn(ret()); // Prints 13
PrintLn(x); // Prints 13
int i = 0;
int h = 0xffff;
float f = 0.0;
char c = '0';
bool t = true;
byte b = byte(0);
byte b2 = byte(0xff);
// Variables can also be declared by using the var keyword
// and letting the compiler infer the type
var x = 15; // int
// All built-in types in Elsa have default values
int: 0
float: 0.0
char: '\0'
byte: 0
// Array and struct instances will be null pointers if not instantiated
// with the new keyword (see the struct section)
// The String struct in Elsa is very incomplete but has some basic functionality
// Creating new string instances
var str = "Hello World!";
var first = "123";
var second = "123";
// Retrives a char at the specified index
str.CharAt(1) // e
// Returns the length of the string as an integer
str.Length() // 12
// Comparing strings, the String struct define its own Equals-function
// see the Structs section for more info
first.Equals(second)); // true
first == second; // true
first != second; // false
// Concatenating strings
var third = first.Concat(second); // third == "123123"
// Substring, substring takes 2 integer arguments
// the start index and the number of chars to grab
third.Substring(0, 3); // "123"
The source code for the String struct can be found here
var floatToInt = int(10.0);
var intToFloat = float(10);
var intToChar = char(33);
var charToInt = int('!');
var intToByte = byte(10);
var x1 = (3 5) * 6; // 48
var x2 = (3 5) * (6 8); // 112
var x3 = (3 5 * 6) * 6; // 198
var x4 = (3 5 / (1 * 6)) * (6 8 * (2 - 1)); // 42
var x5 = true || (true && false); // true
var x6 = (true && false) || (false || false); // false
var x7 = (1 == 1 && 2 == 2) && (7 == 8 || 0 != 8); // true
var x8 = 10 % 3; // 1
// Binary operators
x << 1;
x >> 1;
x | y;
x & y;
byte x1 = 0xFF;
byte y1 = 0xFF;
var r = (int(x1) << 8) | int(y1); // 65535
var arr = new int[10]; // An array of integers with an intial capacity of 10
var arr2 = new [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]; // Arrays can also be defined by using array literals
// Array member functions
arr.Push(1); // Adds the integer 1 to the back of the array
arr.Pop(); // Pops the last element in the array, pop returns the popped element
arr.Length(); // Returns the array length
// Array operators
arr[2]; // Access the element at index 2 in the array
if(x == 10) {
PrintLn("x == 10");
}
else {
// The else block can be omitted
PrintLn("x == 10");
}
for(var i = 0; i < arr.Length(); i )
{
PrintLn(arr[i]);
}
while(y || x) {
PrintLn("Loopy loop");
}
struct Bitmap {
// Fields are declared like this
byte[] data;
int width;
int height;
// Member functions are declared like any other function but inside a struct declaration
fn GetPixel(int x, int y) : Color {
var stride = 4;
var base = stride * x * width y * stride;
return new Color { R: data[base], G: data[base 1], B: data[base 2], A: data[base 3] };
}
// The Equals-function is special. If two struct instances(of the same type) are compared with the
// == operator the Equals-function is automatically called.
// If no Equals-function is declared, a check for reference equality is done
fn Equals(Bitmap other) : bool {
return true;
}
};
struct Color {
byte R;
byte G;
byte B;
byte A;
};
// Struct instances are created by using the new keyword
var red = new Color;
// Elsa also supports initializer lists
var red = new Color { R: 0xFF, G: o, B: o, A: 0xFF };
// Enums in Elsa are just integers converted by the compiler at compile time
enum Enum {
Zero, // 0
Three = 3, // 3
Four, // 4
Seven = 7 // 7
};
// Including stuff from other .elsa source files is done with the use keyword
use "std/io";
fn main() {
PrintLn(z);
}
Elsa has a very small standard library with basic functions for printing stuff to the console, opening a window(and drawing basic shapes), reading files etc.
All standard library functions and structs can be found here
Elsa only runs on Windows(at least right now) and has only been tested with the Visual C Compiler
// factorial (10)
iconst, 1,
l_arg, 0,
br_ineq, 9,
iconst, 1,
ret,
l_arg, 0,
l_arg, 0,
iconst, 1,
isub,
call, 0,
imul,
ret,
// main
iconst, 10,
call, 0,
halt