martindevans / y

Deprecated!

This version of the y compiler has been superseded by a new version.

Y Language Compiler

Y is a C like language which compiles into Yolol. Y is intended to be a completely zero cost abstraction over Yolol, suitable as a total replacement of the underlying language.

Example

Types

type struct coordinate {
    x: number,
    y: number,
    z: number
}

type enum<string> color {
    r("red"),
    g("green"),
    b("blue")
}

type range<number> negative => negative < 0;

Structs are a collection of fields which can be accessed together. An enum is a set of values taken from another type, in the example above the color enum is a subset of the string type and the string "green" can be expressed as color.g in code. Ranges express a set of values which are valid instances of this type as an expression, in the example above the negative range accepts all numbers which are less than zero.

Procedures And Macros

def proc add(a: number, b: number) {
    return a + b;
}

def macro add(a: number, b: number)
{
    return a + b
}

Procedures are compiled with a goto which jumps into the procedure and then jumps back to the call site, this is slow but keeps code size small for procedures which are used several times. Conversely macros are copied in line to where they are used, this means that a macro used multiple times can bloat code size but is faster to execute (no 400ms delay caused by the 2 goto statements). All arguments are passed by reference.

Importing Files

import "a.y";
import "b.y" in namespace;

Files of Y code can be imported into another file of Y code. This parses the imported file and makes all the items in it (types, procedures, macros etc) available for use. Files can additionally be imported in a namespace, which prepends the namespace name to the name of the imported item. For example if Add is defined in b.y it would be named namespace:add in this file.

Main Block

main {
    line(add_loop) {
        :output = add(:left, :right);
        goto add_loop;
    }
}

A `Y` file is compiled to a single Yolol chip script. The `main` block defines the entry point of the code. It is optional, if not included compilation will result in an empty output.