This repository contains an interpreter for the "Monkey" programming language, as described in Write an Interpreter in Go.
This repository started life as the implementation written by gaufung, but it has now diverged significantly in terms of both features and implementation.
The interpreter in this repository has been significantly extended from the starting point:
- Added single-line & multi-line comments.
- Added postfix operators (
i++
,i--
). - Allow accessing individual characters of a string via the index-operator.
- Added a driver to read from STDIN, or a named file, rather than a REPL.
- This allows executing the examples easily (for example "
./monkey examples/hello.mon
".)
- This allows executing the examples easily (for example "
- Added a collection of standard-library functions.
- Including file input/output, type-discovery, string, and math functions.
- Added a new way to define functions, via
function
. - Added the general-purpose comparision functions
<=
&>=
. - Allow string comparisons via
==
,!=
,<=
, &>=
. - Allow comparisions to be complex:
if ( a >= 'a' && a <= 'z' ) ..
if ( a || b ) ..
- Allow assignments without
let
.- This also allows operators such as "
+=
", "-=
", "*=
", & "/=
" to work.
- This also allows operators such as "
- Added command-line handling, so that scripts can read their own arguments.
- Added global-constants available by default
- For example
PI
,E
,STDIN
,STDOUT
, &STDERR
.
- For example
- Most scripts will continue running in the face of errors.
- To correct/detect "obvious" errors add
pragma("strict");
to your script, which will cause the interpreter to show a suitable error-message and terminate.
- To correct/detect "obvious" errors add
- Function arguments may have defaults. For example:
function greet( name = "World" ) { puts("Hello, " + name + "\n"); }
- Moved parts of the standard-library to 100% pure monkey, rather than implementing it in go.
- See data/stdlib.mon for the implementation.
- See also the notes on object-based methods.
- Added the
eval
function.- Which allows executing monkey-code from a string.
- Improved error-reporting from the parser.
- It will now show the line-number of failures (where possible).
If you have a working golang setup you can install the interpreter via:
$ go get -u github.com/skx/monkey
Alternatively you could install a binary-release, from the release page.
If you're an emacs user might also wish to install the monkey.el file, which provides syntax highlighting for monkey-scripts.
To execute a monkey-script simply pass the name to the interpreter:
$ monkey ./example/hello.mon
Scripts can be made executable by adding a suitable shebang line:
$ cat hello.mon
#!/usr/bin/env monkey
puts( "Hello, world!\n" );
Execution then works as you would expect:
$ chmod 755 hello.mon
$ ./hello.mon
Hello, world!
If no script-name is passed to the interpreter it will read from STDIN and execute that instead, allowing simple tests to be made.
NOTE: Example-programs can be found beneath examples/ which demonstrate these things, as well as parts of the standard-library.
Variables are defined using the let
keyword, with each line ending with ;
.
let a = 3;
let b = 1.2;
Variables may be integers, floats, strings, or arrays/hashes (which are discussed later).
Some variables are defined by default, for example:
puts( PI ); // Outputs: 3.14159..
puts( E ); // Outputs: 2.71828..
Variables may be updated without the need for let
, for example this works
as you would expect:
let world = "Earth";
world = "world";
puts( "Hello, " + world + "!\n");
If you're not running with pragma("strict");
you can also declare and
use variables without the need for let
, but that should be avoided as
typos will cause much confusion!
name = "Steve";
puts( "Hello, " + name + "\n");
monkey
supports all the basic arithmetic operation of int
and float
types.
The int
type is represented by int64
and float
type is represented by float64
.
let a = 3;
let b = 1.2;
puts( a + b ); // Outputs: 4.2
puts( a - b ); // Outputs: 1.8
puts( a * b ); // Outputs: 3.6
puts( a / b ); // Outputs: 2.5
puts( 2 ** 3 ) ; // Outputs: 8
Here **
is used to raise the first number to the power of the second.
When operating with integers the modulus operator is available too, via %
.
monkey
contains two builtin containers: array
and hash
.
An array is a list which organizes items by linear sequence. Arrays can hold multiple types.
let a = [1, 2.3, "array"];
let b = [false, true, "Hello World", 3, 3.13];
Adding to an array is done via the push
function:
let a = push(a, "another");
You can iterate over the contents of an array like so:
let i = 0;
for( i < len(a) ) {
puts( "Array index ", i, " contains ", a[i], "\n");
i++
}
With the definition we included that produces this output:
Array index 0 contains 1
Array index 1 contains 2.3
Array index 2 contains array
Array index 3 contains another
A hash is a key/value container, but note that keys may only be of type boolean
, int
and string
.
let a = {"name":"monkey",
true:1,
7:"seven"};
puts(a); // Outputs: {name: monkey, true: 1, 7: seven}
puts(a["name"]); // Outputs: monkey
Updating a hash is done via the set
function, but note that this returns
an updated hash - rather than changing in-place:
let b = set(a, 8, "eight");
puts(b); // Outputs: {name: monkey, true: 1, 7: seven, 8: eight}
You can iterate over the keys in a hash via the keys
function, or delete
keys via delete
(again these functions returns an updated value rather than
changing it in-place).
Hash functions are demonstrated in the examples/hash.mon sample.
The core primitives are:
delete
- Deletes a hash-key.
int
- convert the given float/string to an integer.
keys
- Return the keys of the specified array.
len
- Yield the length of builtin containers.
match
- Regular-expression matching.
pragma
- Allow the run-time environment to be controlled.
- We currently support only
pragma("strict");
.
push
- push an elements into the array.
puts
- print literal value of objects.
set
- insert key value pair into the map.
string
- convert the given item to a string.
type
- returns the type of a variable.
The following functions are also part of our standard library, but are implemented in 100% pure monkey:
first
- yield the first element of array.
last
- yield the last element of array.
rest
- yield an array which excludes the first element.
In addition to the core built-in functions we also have a minimal-standard library. The library includes some string/file primitives, a regular-expression matcher, and some maths-helpers.
You can see the implementation of the go-based standard-library beneath evaluator/stdlib*, and several of these functions are documented in the various examples/.
NOTE: Parts of our standard-library are implemented in 100% pure monkey, and these are embedded in our compiled interpreter. The source of the functions can be viewed in data/stdlib.mon, but to ease compilation these are included in the compiled interpreter via static.go.
If you wish to make changes to the monkey-based standard-library you'll
need to rebuild static.go
after editing stdlib.mon
. To do this use the
implant
tool.
If you don't already have implant
installed fetch it like so:
go get -u github.com/skx/implant/
Now regenerate the embedded version of the standard-library and rebuild the binary to make your changes:
implant -input data/ -output static.go
go build .
monkey
uses fn
to define a function which will be assigned to a variable for
naming/invocation purposes:
let add = fn(a, b) { return a + b;};
puts(add(1,2)); // Outputs: 3
// functions can be used via their variables
let addTwo = fn(a,b, f) { return 2 + f(a, b);};
puts( addTwo(1,2, add) ); // outputs: 5.
It is also possible to define a function without the use of let
, via the function
keyword. This was added to make the language feel more natural to C-developers:
function hello() { puts "Hello, world\n" ; };
hello(); // Outputs: Hello, world" to the console.
You may specify a default value for arguments which are not provided, for example:
let foo = fn( name = "World!") {
puts( "Hello, " + name + "\n" );
};
foo();
foo( "Steve" );
This will output what you expect:
Hello, World!
Hello, Steve
The same thing works for literal functions:
// Function with a default (string) argument
function meh( arg = "Steve" ) {
puts( "Argument:", arg, " has type:", type(arg), "\n");
};
// Call it with no argument and the default will be used.
meh();
// But of course all the rest work just fine.
meh( 1 );
meh( 1/3.0 );
meh( "Steve" );
meh( [1,2,3,4] );
meh( {"Steve":"Kemp", true:1, false:0, 7:"seven"} );
monkey
supports if-else statements.
let max = fn(a, b) {
if (a > b) {
return a;
} else {
return b;
}
};
puts( max(1, 2) ); // Outputs: 2
monkey
supports a golang-style for-loop statement.
let sum = fn(x) {
let i = 1;
let sum = 0;
for (i < x) {
sum += i;
i++;
}
return sum;
};
puts(sum(100)); // Outputs: 4950
monkey
support two kinds of comments:
- Single-line comments begin with
//
and last until the end of the line. - Multiline comments between
/*
and*/
.
The ++
and --
modifiers are permitted for integer-variables, for example the following works as you would expect showing the numbers from 0
to 5
:
let i = 0;
for ( i <= 5 ) {
puts( i, "\n" );
i++;
}
Another feature borrowed from C allows variables to be updated in-place via the operators +=
, -=
, *=
, & /=
.
Using +=
our previous example could be rewritten as:
let i = 0;
for ( i <= 5 ) {
puts( i, "\n" );
i += 1;
}
The update-operators work with integers and doubles by default, when it comes to strings the only operator supported is +=
, allowing for a string-append:
let str = "Forename";
str += " Surname";
str += "\n";
puts( str ); // -> "Forename Surname\n"
As with many scripting languages commands may be executed via the backtick operator (```).
let uptime = `/usr/bin/uptime`;
if ( uptime ) {
puts( "STDOUT: ", uptime["stdout"].trim() , "\n");
puts( "STDERR: ", uptime["stderr"].trim() , "\n");
} else {
puts( "Failed to run command\n");
}
The output will be a hash with two keys stdout
and stderr
. NULL is
returned if the execution fails. This can be seen in examples/exec.mon.
The match
function allows matching a string against a regular-expression.
If a match fails NULL will be returned, otherwise a hash containing any capture groups in the match.
This is demonstrated in the examples/regexp.mon example.
The open
primitive is used to open files, and can be used to open files for either reading, or writing:
// Open a file for reading
fh = open( "/etc/passwd" );
fh = open( "/etc/passwd", "r" );
// Open a file for writing
fh = open( "/tmp/blah", "w" );
// Open a file for appending
fh = open( "/tmp/blah", "wa" );
Once you have a file-object you can invoke methods upon it:
read()
- Read a line of input, returning that input as a string.
readlines()
- Read the lines of the given file, and return them as an array.
write(data)
- Write the data to the given file.
These are demonstrated in the following examples:
- examples/file.mon
- Simple example.
- examples/file-writing.mon
- Simple example.
- examples/wc.mon
- examples/wc2.mon
- Counting lines.
By default three filehandles will be made available, as constants:
STDIN
- Use for reading STDIN.
STDOUT
STDERR
- Used for writing messages.
The primitive stat
will return a hash of details about the given file, or
directory entry.
You can change the permissions of a file via the chmod
function, but note that the second argument is an octal string:
chmod( "/tmp/evil.sh", "755")
chmod( "/tmp/normal", "644")
To remove a file, use unlink
:
unlink( "/tmp/trash.txt" )
And finally to make a directory:
mkdir( "/tmp/blah" );
There is now support for "object-methods". Object methods are methods
which are defined against a type. For example all of our primitive
types allow a methods()
method, which returns the methods which are
available against them.
Similarly each of them implement a type()
function which returns the
type involved:
let i = 1;
puts( i.type() );
let s = "Steve";
puts( s.type() );
Or even:
puts( "Steve".type() );
Seeing methods available works as you would expect:
a = [ "Array", "Is", "Here" ];
let i = 0;
for ( i < len(a.methods() ) ) {
puts( "Method " + a.methods()[i] + "\n" );
i++;
}
This shows:
Method find
Method len
Method methods
Method string
The string
object has the most methods at the time of writing, but
no doubt things will change over time.
The object-methods mentioned above are implemented in Go, however it is also possible to define such methods in 100% monkey!
You can define a method via something like:
function string.steve() {
puts( "Hello, I received '", self, "' as an argument\n" );
}
Note that the function has access to the object it was invoked upon via the
implicit self
name. Invocation would look as you expect:
let s = "Hello, world";
s.steve(); -> Hello, I received 'Hello, world' as an argument
You can see data/stdlib.mon implements some primitives
in this fashion, for example the functional-programming methods array.map
,
array.filter
, string.toupper
, etc, etc.
This repository is configured to run tests upon every commit, and when pull-requests are created/updated. The testing is carried out via .github/run-tests.sh which is used by the github-action-tester action.
Releases are automated in a similar fashion via .github/build, and the github-action-publish-binaries action.