tau

τ

Tau is a dynamically-typed open source programming language designed to be minimal, fast and efficient.

Installation

In order to install Tau, you'll need Go.

Once done, running the following command will successfully install the tau interpreter:

go install github.com/NicoNex/tau/cmd/tau@latest

You can try it out in the terminal by simply running $ tau, alternatively to take advantage of the builtin virtual machine and gain a lot of performance run it with $ tau -vm. The flag -vm works when executing files too. For additional info run $ tau --help.

Syntax

Hello World

We all start from here...

println("Hello World")

Examples

File

As every interpreter Tau supports files either by passing the path to the interpreter or by using the shebang.

#!/path/to/tau

println("hello world")

$ tau helloworld.tau
hello world

if-else blocks

if 1 > 0 {
	println("yes")
} else {
	println("no")
}

myVar = 10

if myVar > 10 {
	println("more than 10")
} else if myVar == 10 {
	println("it's exactly 10")
} else {
	println(myVar)
}

Declaring a function

loop = fn(times, function) {
	if times > 0 {
		function()
		loop(times-1, function)
	}
}

loop(5, fn() { println("Hello World") })

Noteworthy features

The return value can be implicit:

add = fn(x, y) { x + y }
sum = add(9, 1)
println(sum)

>>> 10

Also you can inline the if expressions:

a = 0
b = 1

minimum = if a < b { a } else { b }

The semicolon character ; is implicit on a newline but can be used to separate multiple expressions on a single line.

printData = fn(a, b, c) { println(a); println(b); println(c) }

Functions are first-class and treated as any other data type.

min = fn(a, b) {
	if a < b {
		return a
	}
	b
}

var1 = 1
var2 = 2

m = min(var1, var2)
println(m)

>>> 1

# errtest.tau

div = fn(n, d) {
	if d == 0 {
		return error("zero division error")
	}
	n / d
}

if failed(result1 = div(16, 2)) {
	exit(result1)
}
println("the result of 16 / 2 is", result1)

if failed(result2 = div(32, 0)) {
	exit(result2)
}
println("the result of 32 / 0 is", result2)

$ tau errtest.tau
the result of 16 / 2 is 8
error: zero division error
$

# errtest.tau

increment = fn(n) {
	return n + 1
}

increment("this will raise a runtime error")

error in file errtest.tau at line 4:
    return n + 1
             ^
unsupported operator '+' for types string and int

Concurrency

Tau supports go-style concurrency. This is obtained by the use of four builtins pipe, send, recv close.

• pipe creates a new FIFO pipe and optionally you can pass an integer to it to create a buffered pipe.
• send is used to send values to the pipe.
• recv is used to receive values from the pipe.
• close closes the pipe.

Pipes can be buffered or unbuffered. Buffered pipes make the tau-routine sleep once send is called until at least one value is read from the pipe. Once recv is called on an empty pipe it will cause the tau-routine to sleep until a new value is sent to the pipe. send is used to send values to the pipe. close closes the pipe thus allowing it to be garbage collected. Calling recv on a closed pipe will return null.

# concurrency_example.tau

listen = fn(p) {
	for val = recv(p) {
		println(val)
	}
	println("bye bye...")
}

p = pipe()
tau listen(p)

send(p, "hello")
send(p, "world")
send(p, 123)
send(p, "this is a test")
close(p)

Tau also supports REPL:

>>> add = fn(a, b) { a + b }
>>> string(add)
fn(a, b) { (a + b) }
>>> string(21)
21
>>> recursiveLoop = fn(n, func) { if n != 0 { func(n); recursiveLoop(n-1, func) } }
>>> recursiveLoop(10, fn(n) { println("hello", n) })
hello 10
hello 9
hello 8
hello 7
hello 6
hello 5
hello 4
hello 3
hello 2
hello 1

Data types

Tau is a dynamically-typed programming language and it supports the following primitive types:

Integer

myVar = 10

Float

myVar = 2.5

String

myString = "My string here"

Tau also supports strings interpolation.

temp = 25
myString = "The temperature is { if temp > 20 { \"hot\" } else { \"cold\" } }"
println(myString)

>>> The temperature is hot

For raw strings use the backtick instead of double quotes.

s = `this is a raw string\n {}`
println(s)

>>> this is a raw string\n {}

Boolean

t = true
f = false

Function

pow = fn(base, exponent) {
	if exponent > 0 {
		return base * pow(base, exponent-1)
	}
	1 # You could optionally write 'return 1', but in this case the return is implicit.
}

Builtin Functions

Tau has an assortment of useful builtin functions that operate on many data types:

• len(x) -- Returns the length of the given object x which could be a String, List, Map or Bytes.
• println(s) -- Prints the String s to the terminal (standard out) along with a new-line.
• print(s) -- Same as print() without a new-line.
• input(prompt) -- Asks for input from the user by reading from the terminal (standard in) with an optional prompt.
• string(x) -- Converts the object x to a String.
• error(s) -- Constructs a new error with the contents of the String s.
• type(x) -- Returns the type of the object x.
• int(x) -- Converts the object x to an Integer.
• float(x) -- Converts the object x to a Float.
• `exit([code | message, code]) -- Terminates the program with the optional exit code and/or message.
• append(xs, x) -- Appends the object x to the List xs and returns the new List.
• new -- Constructs a new empty object.
• failed(f) -- Calls the Function f and returns true if an error occurred.
• plugin(path) -- Loads the Plugin at the given path.
• pipe -- Creates a new pipe for sending/receiving messages to/from coroutines.
• send(p, x) -- Sends the object x to the pipe p.
• recv(p) -- Reads from the pipe p and returns the next object sent to it.
• close(p) -- Closes the pipe p.
• hex(x) -- Returns a hexadecimal representation of x.
• oct(x) -- Returns an octal representation of x.
• bin(x) -- Returns a binary representation of x.
• slice(x, start, end) -- Returns a slice of x from start to end which could be a String, List or Bytes.
• keys(x) -- Returns a List of keys of the Map x.
• delete(xs, x) -- Deletes the key x or the xth item from the Map xs or List xs.
• bytes(x) -- Converts the String x to Bytes.

List

empty = []
stuff = ["Hello World", 1, 2, 3, true]

You can append to a list with the append() builtin:

xs =[]
xs = append(xs, 1)

Lists can be indexed using the indexing operator [n]:

xs = [1, 2, 3]
xs[1]

Map

empty = {}
stuff = {"Hello": "World", 123: true}

Keys can be added using the set operator [key] = value:

kv = {}
k["foo"] = "bar"

Keys can be accessed using the get operator [key]:

kv = ["foo": "bar"}
kv["foo"]

Loop

for i = 0; i < 10; ++i {
	println("hello world", i)
}

lst = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]

println(lst)
for len(lst) > 0 {
	println(lst = tail(lst))
}

Objects

obj = new()
obj.value1 = 123
obj.value2 = 456

obj.sumValues = fn() {
	obj.value1 + obj.value2
}

obj.child = new()
obj.child.value = obj.sumValues()

Dog = fn(name, age) {
	dog = new()

	dog.name = name
	dog.age = age

	dog.humanage = fn() {
		dog.age * 7
	}

	return dog
}

snuffles = Dog("Snuffles", 8)
println(snuffles.humanage())

>>> 56

Files

It's possible to open files with the open builtin. The aforementioned builtin supports the following file modes:

• r opens a file read-only and it's the default mode when no mode is specified.
• w opens a file write-only truncating it to zero length. If the file doesn't exist it creates it.
• a opens a file in append mode for reading and writing and it creates it if doesn't exist.
• x opens a file in exclusive mode for reading and writing, if the file doesn't exist it creates it and fails otherwise.
• rw opens a file for reading and writing truncating it to zero length first.

# file_example.tau

f = open("myfile.txt")
content = f.Read()
f.Close()

# file_example.tau

f = open("myfile.txt", "a")
content = f.Read()
f.Write("Hello World")
f.Close()

println("previous content: {content}")

Modules

When importing a module only the fields whose name start with an upper-case character will be exported. Same thing applies for exported objects, in the example Snuffles is exported but the field id won't be visible ouside the module.

# import_test.tau

data = 123

printData = fn() {
	println(data)
}

printText = fn() {
	println("example text")
}

TestPrint = fn() {
	printData()
	printText()
}

dog = fn(name, age) {
	d = new()
	d.Name = name
	d.Age = age
	d.id = 123

	d.ID = fn() {
		d.id
	}

	return d
}

Snuffles = dog("Mr Snuffles", 5)

it = import("import_test")

it.TestPrint()

println(it.Snuffles.Name)
println(it.Snuffles.Age)
println(it.Snuffles.ID())

>>> 123
>>> example text
>>> Mr Snuffles
>>> 5
>>> 456

Tau plugin system makes it possible to import and use Go plugins in Tau seamlessly. To run your Go code in Tau just compile it with:

go build -buildmode=plugin -o myplugin.so

then you can import it in Tau with the plugin builtin function.

myplugin = plugin("path/to/myplugin.so")

Go code:

package main

import "fmt"

func Hello() {
	fmt.Println("Hello World")
}

func Sum(a, b int) int {
	return a + b
}

Tau code:

myplugin = plugin("myplugin.so")

myplugin.Hello()
println("The sum is", myplugin.Sum(3, 2))

Output:

>>> Hello World
>>> The sum is 5