Kannada Script

A toy programming language to learn coding in Kannada, written in TypeScript.
Kannadigarinda, Kannadigarigoskara 🔥 (Forked from BhaiLang)

Playground · Documentation · Engineering in Kannada

namaskara
  kelasa factorial(n) {
    enadru (n <= 1) {
      kodu 1;
    }
    kodu n * factorial(n - 1);
  }

  prathi (idu i = 1; i <= 5; i += 1) {
    helu i + "! =", factorial(i);
  }
matte sigona

Every keyword can also be written in Kannada script:

ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ
  ಇದು ಹೆಸರು = "ಕನ್ನಡ";
  ಹೇಳು "ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ " + ಹೆಸರು;
ಮತ್ತೆ ಸಿಗೋಣ

Installation

npm i -g kannada-script

Usage

Create a file, for example hello.kans, and write your program in it:

namaskara
  helu "Namaskara Jagattu!";
matte sigona

Run it:

kannadascript hello.kans

Or skip the install and use the online playground: examples, sharable links, input for kelu(), a one-click switch between English letters and ಕನ್ನಡ ಲಿಪಿ, and errors that point at the line.

Keywords

Keyword	ಕನ್ನಡ	Meaning	Like
namaskara	ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ	hello, program starts
matte sigona	ಮತ್ತೆ ಸಿಗೋಣ	see you again, program ends
helu	ಹೇಳು	say	console.log
idu	ಇದು	this is	let
enadru	ಏನಾದ್ರು	if ever	if
illa andre	ಇಲ್ಲ ಅಂದ್ರೆ	if not	else if
enu illa andre	ಏನು ಇಲ್ಲ ಅಂದ್ರೆ	if nothing else	else
ellivargu	ಎಲ್ಲಿವರೆಗೂ	until when	while
prathi	ಪ್ರತಿ	for every	for
saaku nilsu	ಸಾಕು ನಿಲ್ಸು	enough, stop	break
munde nodu	ಮುಂದೆ ನೋಡು	look ahead	continue
kelasa	ಕೆಲಸ	work	function
kodu	ಕೊಡು	give	return
sari / thappu	ಸರಿ / ತಪ್ಪು	right / wrong	true / false
khali	ಖಾಲಿ	empty	null
mattu / athava / alla	ಮತ್ತು / ಅಥವಾ / ಅಲ್ಲ	and / or / not	&& / || / !

Documentation

General

namaskara is the entrypoint for the program and all program must end with matte sigona. Anything outside of it will be ignored.

This will be ignored

namaskara
  // Write code here
  /* multi line
     comments too */
matte sigona

This too

Variables & types

Variables are declared using idu. Numbers and strings work like in other languages (strings support escapes like \n and \"). sari and thappu are the booleans, khali is null and [ ] creates an array. Kannada letters and digits (೦-೯) work in names and numbers.

namaskara
  idu a = 10;
  idu b = "two", c;
  idu d = [1, 'mooru', sari, khali];
  a += 1;
  helu a, b, c, d;
matte sigona

Operators

Arithmetic + - * / %, comparison == != < <= > >=, logical mattu (&&), athava (||), alla (!), and the assignments = += -= *= /= %=.

namaskara
  idu a = 7;
  helu a + 3, a % 3, -a, (a > 5) mattu (a < 10), alla sari;
matte sigona

Built-ins

Use helu to print anything to console.

namaskara
  helu "Hello World";
  helu 5, 'ok', khali, sari, thappu;
matte sigona

Function	ಕನ್ನಡ	What it does
uddha(x)	ಉದ್ದ	length of a string or array
serisu(list, x)	ಸೇರಿಸು	adds x to the end of an array
tegi(list)	ತೆಗಿ	removes and returns the last element
sankhye(x)	ಸಂಖ್ಯೆ	converts to a number
pada(x)	ಪದ	converts to a string
poorna(x)	ಪೂರ್ಣ	rounds down to a whole number
kelu(prompt)	ಕೇಳು	reads a line of input

Conditionals

The enadru block runs if its condition is sari, otherwise the first illa andre block whose condition is sari runs, and finally the enu illa andre block. thappu, khali, 0 and "" count as false.

namaskara
  idu a = 10;
  enadru (a < 20) {
    helu "a is less than 20";
  } illa andre ( a < 25 ) {
    helu "a is less than 25";
  } enu illa andre {
    helu "a is greater than or equal to 25";
  }
matte sigona

Loops

ellivargu repeats while its condition is sari, prathi is a counting loop. Use saaku nilsu to break the loop and munde nodu to continue.

namaskara
  idu a = 0;
  ellivargu (a < 10) {
    a += 1;
    enadru (a == 5) {
      munde nodu;
    }
    enadru (a == 7) {
      saaku nilsu;
    }
    helu a;
  }

  prathi (idu i = 1; i <= 3; i += 1) {
    helu i, "x 9 =", i * 9;
  }
matte sigona

Functions

Declare functions with kelasa and return a value with kodu. Functions support recursion and closures, and can be passed around as values.

namaskara
  kelasa jodisu(a, b) {
    kodu a + b;
  }
  helu jodisu(2, 3);
matte sigona

Arrays & input

namaskara
  idu hesaru = kelu("Ninna hesaru? ");
  idu hannu = ["mavu", "bale"];
  serisu(hannu, "halasu");
  hannu[0] = "seebe";
  helu "Namaskara " + hesaru, hannu, uddha(hannu);
matte sigona

Development

To work on Kannada Script itself, build it from source:

git clone https://github.com/chandansgowda/kannada-script.git
cd kannada-script
npm install
npm run build   # parser, interpreter, CLI and the playground
npm run test
npm run dev     # website at http://localhost:3000
node packages/cli/bin/index.js hello.kans   # run the CLI you built

The CLI is published from packages/cli (cd packages/cli && npm publish).

The repo has packages/parser (tokenizer + recursive descent parser producing an AST), packages/interpreter (tree-walking interpreter), packages/cli and apps/docs (the website & playground). You can explore the abstract syntax tree (AST) of kannadascript here.