kitcoda 1.0.1

An esolang where every keyword is based on cats and kittens

What is this?

This is an esoteric programming language ( esolang ) called KitCoda.

It is centered around cats, because I love them, and every command is something a cat could do.

It is like python, except it's tiny ( 600 lines!! ) and only has a few, essential commands.

However, you can do lots of things in KitCoda! For example, you can approximate sin(x), with just its four basic math functions!

Why did I make this?

I made this to satisfy something for me and others: the need for a cute programming language.

How did I make this?

I wrote this line by line, day by day, over the course of a month.

I started by creating simple commands, like meow ( the print command ) and bap ( an if statement )

Over time, though, I added more and more commands, until I felt this was a complete esolang.

What did I learn? What did I struggle with?

I struggled with many bugs and errors, code not working, and with many other problems throughout this wonderful process.

However, I feel that I have learned a few things from it:

• How to make an esolang,
• Why these exist,
• How to implement a variety of commands
• Parsing
• And finally, how to get through the struggles of coding!

This is also my first published, completed project.

How to use KitCoda:

There are two modes to use KitCoda: REPL ( one line at a time ), or file ( write a file, give it to the parser )

In KitCoda, you start every line of code with a command. There are 15 main commands ( commands you can start a line with ), with 2 subcommands ( commands in a seperate statement ), which we'll talk about individually later.

For now, you can know them as meow, sit, bap, purr, pounce, spin, add, subtract, multiply, divide, eat, sip, and nap.

Now, let's get into commands!

meow

Function: logs something to the command line.

Syntax:

sit var is "!"
meow "hello world"  
meow var
meow "hello world" var

Output:

hello world
!
hello world !

Don't worry, you'll learn sit in just a moment!

sit

Function: sets a variable.

Syntax:

sit var is "meow"
sit purr is "hi"
sit hello is var

meow var purr hello

Output:

meow hi meow

bap

Function: tests if something is true. does something if it is. optionally: does something else if it isnt.

Syntax:

sit var1 is "hello"
sit var2 is "hi"
sit var3 is "hello"

bap var1 is like var2 {
  meow var1
} bop {
  meow var2
}

Output:

hi

purr & pounce

Function: purr defines a function. these can take arguments! pounce runs a function and optionally passes arguments to it.

Syntax:

sit meow is "hello world"
purr func var {
  meow var
}
pounce func meow

Output:

hello world

spin

Function: loops! does something over and over.

Syntax:

sit var is 0
spin while bap var isnt like 3 {
  meow "hello world"
  sit var is add var with 1
}
spin 2 times {
  meow hi
}

Output:

hello world
hello world
hello world
hi
hi

math commands

Function: add, subtract, multiply, or divide things. you can do lots with these!

Syntax:

sit x is 5
sit y is 10
sit z is add x with y
meow z
sit z is subtract y with x
meow z
sit z is multiply x with y
meow z
sit z is divide y with x
meow z

Output:

15
5
50
2.0

eat

Function: takes user input.

Syntax:

sit name is eat "What is your name? "
sit age is eat "How old are you? "
meow "You are" name "and you are" age "years old"

Output:

What's your name? skai
How old are you? 14
You are skai and you are 14 years old

sip

Function: take functions from another file. thievery!

Syntax:

in one file (hello.kit):

    purr hello {
      meow "hello"
    }
    purr world {
      meow "world"
    }

in another file:

    sip hello.kit
    pounce hello
    pounce world

Output:

hello
world

nap

Function: goes to sleep! exits the program.

Syntax:

meow "hello"
nap
meow "world"

Output:

hello