tl;dr

Blade is a simple, fast, clean and dynamic language that allows you to develop applications quickly. Blade emphasises algorithm over syntax and for this reason, it has a very small but powerful syntax set with a very natural feel.

Features

• Simple syntax and minimal keywords.
• Dynamically typed.
• First-class package management (Package management is built into the language module system).
• Object-oriented (only supports single inheritance for now. Multiple inheritance is open for discussion).
• Exceptions.
• Closures.
• Iterable classes.
• REPL
• Lightweight.
• Easy to extend with C modules.

Example

The following implements a simple HTTP server that listens on port 3000.

import http
import json

var server = http.server(3000)
server.on_receive(|request, response| {
  echo 'Request from ${request.ip} to ${request.path}.'

  response.headers['Content-Type'] = 'application/json'
  response.write(json.encode(request))
})

echo 'Listening on Port 3000...'
server.listen()

Why should I use Blade?

If you fall into one of more of this categories or have one of the following needs, then Blade is the right language for you.

• You want Python's simplicity but love coding with braces and other things C-like.
• You want a language with first-class support for package management.
• You need a quick script for automating mundane tasks on your device.
• You need a language that allows fast prototyping.
• You want to do backend development without needing to depend on a framework.
• You want a scripting language you can easily port your existing C99 codes to with less hassle (Work in progress).
• You want a familiar language that can be embedded into your application that's more extensive than Lua.

There are many more use-cases where Blade is a great fit. This is just the bare minimal.

Documentation

Documentation is currently in-progress in the blade-docs repo. You can read the Blade language documentation online at bladelang.com.

C Extensions to Blade

Blade supports external extensions built in C. While the website is yet to include documentation on writing C extensions, there is an easy-to-pick-up example in the blade-ext-demo repository.

GOTCHAS!

For some weird reasons yet unknown, third-party C modules for Blade don't work correctly on Blade installations built with MSVC (Visual Studio). To be able to use external C modules on Windows, build or use a Blade installation built with either TDM-GCC or MinGW64.

Directory Structure

How to contribute

Along with Blade's goal to be simple, flexibile and expressive is a strong desire to make the community around it as friendly and welcoming as possible. Therefore, all forms of contributions from pull requests, suggestions, typo fixes in documentation, feature request, bug reports and any contribution at all is greatly welcomed and appreciated.

WE NEED HELP! From review of this documentation, to suggestions on the core features of Blade, testing of Blade features, writing more comprehensive tests, bug detection, code fixes and more. PLEASE CONTRIBUTE!

Contributing code, fixes and features

The standard. The general workflow is as follows.

1. Find/file an issue on the Issues tab.
2. Fork the repo and make your changes.
3. Push your changes to a branch in your forked repo.
4. Submit a pull request to Blade from your forked repo.

You can also just mail your issues to Ore Richard Muyiwa directly.

Coding Standard

• I decided to break from the popular camel case common to C style languages and went with snake cases. Honestly speaking, the only justifiable reason is because I think it looks cool. I know you may have a differing opinion, but I will really appreciate it that you keep to that in your PRs. I used this same style for both the C source and the core library.

• For formatting, simply follow the LLVM guide minus the whole braces {/} on separate line thing. It looks really ugly. I advise you use the JetBrains CLion or Visual Studio Code IDE(s) to format your code before submitting for PR.

That simple!