Spike: The Language

"Hello, world" in Spike

#!/usr/bin/env spike-1

main(argv) {
    stdout.puts("Yip!\n");
    return 0;
}

Spike is a brand-new programming language. It was born out of frustration with existing programming languages, and a love of Smalltalk. In essence, Spike is Smalltalk with a C-like syntax.

Download

Spike is still a puppy. He's still in alpha. You may download an alpha release here.

There is no documentation except for this page. There is no linker; but you won't miss it, because there are no libraries (not even a standard library). I'll stop here, because the number of things that are missing are too numerous to mention.

Installation

Examples

Fibonacci

#!/usr/bin/env spike-1

fib(x) {
    if (x<=2) return 1;
    return fib(x-1) + fib(x-2);
}

main(argv) {
    stdout.printf("%d\n", fib(10));
    return 0;
}

A simple class

#!/usr/bin/env spike-1

class Point {
    var x, y;
    
    // initializing
    init(newX, newY) {
        x = newX;
        y = newY;
    }
    
    // accessing
    x { return x; }
    y { return y; }
    x = newX { x = newX; }
    y = newY { y = newY; }
    
    self x: newX y: newY {
        x = newX;
        y = newY;
        return self;
    }
        
    // arithmetic
    self + delta {
        return self.class
            x: x + delta.x
            y: y + delta.y;
    }
    self * scale {
        return self.class
            x: scale * x
            y: scale * y;
    }
    -self {
        return self.class
            x: -x
            y: -y;
    }
    self + 1 {
        return self.class
            x: x + 1
            y: y + 1;
    }
    self - 1 {
        return self.class
            x: x - 1
            y: y - 1;
    }

    // printing
    print() {
        stdout.printf("(%d, %d)\n", x, y);
    }
    
} meta {
    
    self x: xValue y: yValue {
        return self.new() x: xValue y: yValue;
    }
}


main(argv) {
    var a, b, c;
    
    a = (Point) x: 4  y: 2;
    b = (Point) x: 22 y: 44;
    
    stdout.printf("a is "); a.print();
    stdout.printf("b is "); b.print();
    c = a + b;
    stdout.printf("c is "); c.print();
    return 0;
}