Corvus Programming Language

A modern, clean, and general-purpose programming language built in Python — featuring explicit block scoping, static type annotations, first-class lambdas, OOP, and friendly diagnostic errors.

The Story • Key Features • Quickstart • Code Examples • License

📖 The Story Behind Corvus

"I got inspired to build my own programming language after watching a video about a programmer who created G# and C#. Since I already knew Python, I decided to take on the challenge and build my very own programming language from scratch!"
— Saatvik Jain (11-Year-Old Creator of Corvus)

Corvus was born out of curiosity and a passion for computer science. Instead of relying on indentation (like Python) or curly braces (like C/JavaScript), Corvus introduces a unique syntax using square brackets [ ... ] for code blocks, reserving curly braces { ... } for native lists. It combines the ease of Python with explicit type declarations, structured error recovery, and actionable developer diagnostics.

🌟 Key Features

• 📦 Explicit Scope Delimiters: Code blocks use brackets [ ... ] for clean, unambiguous scope boundaries.
• 🏷️ Explicit Type Declarations: set <type>; name = value for typed variables and set const; NAME = value for immutable constants.
• 🎯 Actionable Error Diagnostics: Custom diagnostic engine that points to the exact line/column with caret pointers (^) and actionable fix suggestions.
• ⚡ First-Class Lambdas: Inline and block lambdas (lmb[x] => x * 2) with functional list transformations (.map(), .filter()).
• 🧬 Object-Oriented Programming: Complete support for classes (cls Person() [ ... ]) with init constructors and self instance dispatch.
• 🛡️ Structured Exception Recovery: try [ ... ] error(e) [ ... ] final [ ... ] blocks.
• 📚 Native Standard Modules: Built-in modules including get math (math.pi, math.sqrt) and get system.

🚀 Quickstart

Prerequisites

Make sure you have Python 3.8+ installed on your computer.

Running a Corvus Script

Clone the repository and run any .crv file using the Corvus driver:

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/Corvus.git
cd Corvus
python Corvus.py test_v01.crv

💻 Code Showcase

1. Factorial Recursion & Control Flow

?{ Pure recursive function in Corvus }
mk func factorial(n) [
    if (n <= 1) [
        givout 1
    ]
    givout n * factorial(n - 1)
]

log("Factorial of 5 is:", factorial(5))

2. Lambdas & Higher-Order List Operations

set lis; numbers = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
set lmb; double_fn = lmb[x] => x * 2

set lis; doubled_list = numbers.map(double_fn)
log("Doubled numbers:", doubled_list)

3. Object-Oriented Class Declaration

cls Person() [
    set str; name
    set int; age

    mk func init(name_val, age_val) [
        self.name = name_val
        self.age = age_val
    ]

    mk func describe() [
        log("Person -> Name:", self.name, "| Age:", self.age)
    ]
]

set Person; user = Person("Saatvik Jain", 22)
user.describe()

4. Diagnostic Error Handling

try [
    log("Executing calculation...")
    set int; result = 10 / 0
] error(err) [
    log("Caught error safely ->", err["message"])
] final [
    log("Cleanup block executed.")
]

🏗️ Architecture & How It Works

Corvus is built using a textbook 5-stage compiler pipeline:

$$\text{Corvus Source Code (.crv)} \xrightarrow{\text{Lexer}} \text{Tokens} \xrightarrow{\text{Parser}} \text{AST} \xrightarrow{\text{Evaluator + Environment}} \text{Execution}$$

1. Lexer (lexercorvus.py): Tokenizes source code into typed tokens while handling comments (?{ ... }) and multi-line offsets.
2. Parser (parsercorvus.py): Recursive-descent parser constructing Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) nodes with an operator precedence ladder.
3. AST (astnodes.py): Strongly-typed dataclass representation of all language primitives.
4. Evaluator (evaluatorcorvus.py): AST Visitor interpreter managing lexically-scoped Environment trees and runtime dispatch.
5. Diagnostics (errors.py): Formatted exception formatter printing precise line/column pointers and fix suggestions.

📄 License & Author

• Author: Saatvik Jain (11-Year-Old Developer)
• Documentation: See Corvus v0.1.0.docx for the full language reference specification.
• License: Released under the open-source MIT License.