CuffScript is a lightweight scripting language designed for readable, natural-language-like syntax and simple general-purpose scripting. This repository includes its language engine, a script runner (cuffc), an interactive shell (cuffsh), built-in libraries, and runnable examples.

The engine can be used through the command-line interpreter, embedded in a C++ application, or run in a browser through WebAssembly.

str name = "World"

func greet(str person) do:
    return f"Hello, {person}!"
end

print(greet(name))

Hello, World!

Before building CuffScript, make sure you have:

• A C++17 compatible compiler (GCC, Clang, or MinGW-w64 on Windows)
• make available on your system (mingw32-make on Windows)

If you are using Linux or macOS, the standard system make should work. If you are on Windows, install MinGW-w64 and ensure it is on your PATH before running the build commands below. Installation has the details for each platform.

On Linux or macOS:

make

On Windows with MinGW:

mingw32-make -f Makefile.win

The executable is cuffc on Linux/macOS and cuffc.exe on Windows. The interactive shell is built separately with ./cli/build.sh (cli\build.bat on Windows).

./cuffc examples/01_hello.cuff

On Windows:

.\cuffc.exe examples\01_hello.cuff

To read a script from standard input, run cuffc without a file. Use --help to see available command-line options.

use DLC:list

list scores = [72, 95, 88, 61]
number total = 0

loop each number score in scores do:
    if score >= 70 do:
        total = total + 1
    end
end

print(f"{total} of {length(scores)} passed")

str code = "AB-1234"
if code matches p"[up]2-[num]4" do:
    print("the code has the right shape")
end

class Player do:
    str name = "unknown"
    number points = 0

    func init(str name) do:
        self.name = name
    end

    func score(number n) do:
        self.points = self.points + n
    end
end

Player ann = Player("Ann")
ann.score(30)
print(f"{ann.name} has {ann.points} points")

3 of 4 passed
the code has the right shape
Ann has 30 points

• Variables, constants, functions, conditionals, and loops
• Lists, ordered maps, indexing, and slicing
• Classes with fields, methods, inheritance and private members, and a with block
• A built-in pattern-matching language with word-style tokens ([num], [email]) instead of cryptic symbols, and patterns as values (p"...")
• Async functions, modules, and recoverable errors that are objects (or_else as, fail)
• Eleven built-in libraries: math, strings, lists, maps, conversion, time, dates, random numbers, JSON, files and a small HTTP client
• Error reports with the source line, a caret under the position, and a hint, and a catalogue of every error code
• Limits on nesting, recursion, size and matching work, so a script can fail without crashing its host
• A C++ API for embedding the engine, plus a WebAssembly build target

Everything is under docs/, organised by what you are trying to do:

Runnable programs are in examples/, and the WebAssembly package is described in npm/README.md.

Questions, bug reports and proposals are welcome: see Getting help and Contributing. Security problems are reported privately; see the Security Policy. Everyone taking part is expected to follow the Code of Conduct.

make
bash tests/run.sh

On Windows, use mingw32-make -f Makefile.win followed by powershell -File tests\run.ps1. The shell, the documentation and the sanitizer builds have their own checks; see Testing.

CuffScript is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.