QuickRef.md

Welcome to MiniScript!

MiniScript is a high-level object-oriented language that is easy to read and write.

Clean Syntax

Put one statement per line, with no semicolons, except to join multiple statements on one line.

Code blocks are delimited by keywords (see below). Indentation doesn't matter (except for readability).

Comments begin with //.

Don't use empty parentheses on function calls, or around conditions in if or while blocks.

All variables are local by default. MiniScript is case-sensitive.

Control Flow

if, else if, else, end if

Use if blocks to do different things depending on some condition. Include zero or more else if blocks and one optional else block.

if 2+2 == 4 then
    print "math works!"
else if pi > 3 then
    print "pi is tasty"
else if "a" < "b" then
    print "I can sort"
else
    print "last chance"
end if

while, end while

Use a while block to loop as long as a condition is true.

s = "Spam"
while s.len < 50
    s = s + ", spam"
end while
print s + " and spam!"

for, end for

A for loop can loop over any list, including ones easily created with the range function.

for i in range(10, 1)
    print i + "..."
end for
print "Liftoff!"

break & continue

The break statement jumps out of a while or for loop. The continue statement jumps to the top of the loop, skipping the rest of the current iteration.

Data Types

Numbers

All numbers are stored in full-precision format. Numbers also represent true (1) and false (0). Operators:

Operator	Meaning
+, -, *, /	standard math
%	mod (remainder)
^	power
and, or, not	logical operators
==, !=, >, >=, <, <=	comparison

Strings

Text is stored in strings of Unicode characters. Write strings by surrounding them with quotes. If you need to include a quotation mark in the string, type it twice.

print "OK, ""Bob""."

Operators:

Operator	Meaning
+	string concatenation
-	string subtraction (chop)
*, /	replication, division
==, !=, >, >=, <, <=	comparison
[i]	get character i
[i:j]	get slice from i up to j

Lists

Write a list in square brackets. Iterate over the list with for, or pull out individual items with a 0-based index in square brackets. A negative index counts from the end. Get a slice (subset) of a list with two indices, separated by a colon.

x = [2, 4, 6, 8]
x[0]   // 2
x[-1]  // 8
x[1:3] // [4, 6]
x[2]=5 // x now [2,4,5,8]

Operators:

Operator	Meaning
+	list concatenation
*, /	replication, division
[i]	get/set element i
[i:j]	get slice from i up to j

Maps

A map is a set of values associated with unique keys. Create a map with curly braces; get or set a single value with square brackets. Keys and values may be any type.

m = {1:"one", 2:"two"}
m[1]   // "one"
m[2] = "dos"

Operators:

Operator	Meaning
+	map concatenation
[k]	get/set value with key k
.ident	get/set value by identifier

Functions

Create a function with function, including parameters with optional default values. Assign the result to a variable. Invoke by using that variable. Use @ to reference a function without invoking.

triple = function(n=1)
    return n*3
end function

print triple      // 3
print triple(5)   // 15
f = @triple
print f(5)   // also 15

Classes & Objects

A class or object is a map with a special __isa entry that points to the parent. This is set automatically when you use the new operator.

Shape = {"sides":0}
Square = new Shape
Square.sides = 4
x = new Square
x.sides  // 4

Functions invoked via dot syntax get a self variable that refers to the object they were invoked on.

Shape.degrees = function()
    return 180*(self.sides-2)
end function

x.degrees   // 360

Intrinsic Functions

Numeric

abs(x)	acos(x)	asin(x)
atan(y,x)	ceil(x)	char(i)
cos(r)	floor(x)	log(x,b)
round(x,d)	rnd	rnd(seed)
pi	sign(x)	sin(r)
sqrt(x)	str(x)	tan(r)

String

.indexOf(s)	.insert(i,s)	.len
.val	.code	.remove(s)
.lower	.upper	.replace(a,b)
.split(d)

List/Map

.hasIndex(i)	.indexOf(x)	.insert(i,v)
.join(s)	.push(x)	.pop
.pull	.indexes	.values
.len	.sum	.sort
.shuffle	.remove(i)	range(from,to,step)

Other

print s	time	wait sec
locals	outer	globals
yield