Sphere

Sphere is a compact language designed with balance between memory control of C and memory safety via runtime-immutability first.

The Syntax is designed to balance reading and writing by minimizing the amount of characters required to write while maintaining the self-explanatory nature of the code and namings.

The Compilation is deisgned to modify the code into a more memory-safe and efficient code while maintaining the end result by mitigating potential risks of memory corruption, to then convert into custom bytecode for the runtime.

The Runtime is written in C and is designed to be freestanding with security mechanism for any undefined or uncoverred cases, conditions or behaviors. Due to this concept, the runtume

This language uses "freestanding C"-written runtime. Therefore, it is very CPU Architecture and OS specific (List of curently supported CPU Architectures and OSs are below).



Sphere-written software [will] compile(s) into .sbf files.

THIS PROJECT IS UNDER ALPHA DEVELOPMENT

Any feature may change at any given point in time
Reader discression is advised

Examples

main(): int {
    hello: string = "Hello,"
    world: string = "World!"
    outln hello world 
    outln $"{hello}{world}"
}

<# Output:
Hello, World!
Hello,World!

#>

How to Compile

This project is written with the latest .Net release So install that before continuing. Not sure if you have it? check by doing dotnet --version.

 - Git Clone this repo with the `-b prototype` argument and head into the cloned project.
 - do `dotnet restore` to get all the possible dependencies installed
 - do `dotnet publish --self-contained` and wait for it to finish
 - now run your new executable by running `<exeNameWithoutDotExe> <SphereFile>`

Identifier Prefixes

Handle	Description
$<object>	Gets the information of the specified object
@<object>	Gets or sets the address of the specified object.
<object>	Gets or sets the value of the object

Learn more (coming soon)

Instructions

Instructions and Arguments	Description
mov <object> <int>	Move the object by signed number of addresses
incr <int>	Increment current address by the given amount
decr <int>	Decrement current address by the given amount
<identifier>(): <DataType> {}	Function with name as string with one argument
out <arsg>	Print all arguments before EOL without line break.
outln <args>	Print all arguments before EOL with line break.
if <Condition> { <instructions> }	Executes Instructions when condition returns true
elif <Condition> { <instructions> }	Executes Instructions when condition returns true when primary condition is not met
else if <Condition> { <instructions> }	Executes Instructions when condition returns true when primary condition is not met
else { <instructions> }	Executes Instructions when none of the Conditions were met
for <start> <end> <identifier?> {}	Iterates from start value to the end value while iterator is less than or equal to end . Optional: Identifier

Sphere Execution File

sef files are human-readable link and execution files, planned to have their own conditions and conditional statements (coming soon).

Here is how .sef files will work

entry <FileIdOrFileName>

[dependency]
./deps/path/to/file.sbf
./deps/path/to/directory
./deps/path/to/directory/*
./deps/path/to/directory/*/.../
./deps/path/to/directory/...*/
./deps/path/to/directory/sub.../

[blacklist]
# to prevent loading

[whitelist]
# to allow loading

Syntax	Description
./*	All files and folders
./*/.../	All files, folders and subdirectories (default depth: 1)
./...*/	recursive subdirectory traversal - * can be any number for max depth (default: unlimited)
./sub...*/	recursive subdirectory traversal under sub folder (max depth is *- default: unlimited)
./*...*/	Recursively all files, folders and subdirectories at any depth (max depth is *- default: unlimited)

Learn more (coming soon)

Support

Any operating systems that support LLVM and clang will be immediately supported.

Platform Support

• Freestanding
  • x86
  • arm
  • RISC-V
  
  
• Windows
  • x86
  • arm
  • RISC-V
  
  
• Linux
  • x86
  • arm
  • RISC-V
  
  
• MacOS
  • x86 (old devices)
  • arm
  
  
• Android (ARM)
• iOS (ARM)

Indefinate Software

Here are some of the software that are under consideration of development using Sphere as the source code language

• Petroglyph IDE
• Boulder Package Manager
• RollOS (Runtime w/ Userspace)
• Asciigine (Console/Terminal based Game Engine with Ascii graphics)