Getting started

What is ArkScript?#

• A small functional scripting language,
• Only needs 9 keywords to write code, not 68,
• Portable, compile once and run your bytecode anywhere,
• Homoiconic via its macro processor,

(import std.List)
(let data [very important data here])
# the function we'll call using async
(let sum (fun (a b src) {
  (mut acc 0)
  (while (< a b) {
    (set acc (+ acc (@ src a)))
    (set a (+ 1 a))})
  acc }))
# a set of calls to `sum` to compute data asynchronously
(let workers [
  (async sum 0 (/ size 4) data)
  (async sum (/ size 4) (/ size 2) data)
  (async sum (/ size 2) (- size (/ size 4)) data)
  (async sum (- size (/ size 4)) size data)])
# awaiting on all of our workers and summing it up!
(let result (list:sum (list:map workers (fun (w) (await w)))))

CompilationError: Unbound variable error "fib" (did you mean "fibo"?)
In file fibonacci.ark
On line 7:12, got `(Symbol) fib'
   4 |     n
   5 |     (+ (fibo (- n 1)) (fibo (- n 2))))))
   6 | (while continue {
   7 |   (print (fib 28))
     |           ^^^
   8 |   (if (= (random 1 10) 1)
   9 |     (set continue false))

How do I try/install/use the language?#

You will want to learn the language first: Learning ArkScript.

Then you can experiment with either:

• try the online playground, so that you don’t have to install anything
• use Docker, to avoid clutering your computer with dependencies and compilers,
• or install it on your machine via one of our releases

I want to contribute!#

Everyone is welcome to contribute to the project, as long as you are respectful of others. Check out our contribution guidelines!

Using ArkScript in your company#

I (Lex Plateau) am working pretty much alone on this project, and I try to do my best to leave it as bug free and as performant as possible. However, this is a side project for which I’m currently not paid to work on, thus I can’t fix every bug or address every feature request in a timely manner.

Please reach out either by email (lexplt.dev@gmail.com) or via a discussion before using the language in a company project, so that we can set up a support contract. If you don’t want to set up a contract, your issues and support requests won’t be prioritized (and possibly left unanswered).