GitHub - rolandbrake/pilang: Pilang is a lightweight, emb...

A lightweight, embeddable, general-purpose programming language written in C.

Visit the Pilang website | Read the docs | Explore examples

Overview

Pilang is a small, expressive scripting language with a compact C implementation, a bytecode virtual machine, modules, objects, tensors, and a practical standard library. It aims to feel light enough for quick scripts, but capable enough for experiments, teaching tools, numerical code, and embeddable application logic.

The language mixes familiar Python-like readability with features that are fun to compose: list comprehensions, slices, ranges, spread syntax, tuples, sets, closures, classes, callable objects, operator hooks, and native tensor helpers. The repository includes a native interpreter, a WebAssembly/browser build, documentation, editor assets, built-in modules, reusable libraries, and a growing test suite. here is two examples show case the capability of the language with data visualization:

Why Pilang

Readable scripts with sharp edges where they help: let, const, fun, class, ranges, slices, # length, in, ternaries, spread syntax, destructuring, and comprehensions.
Collections are first-class: lists, maps, tuples, and sets have literal syntax and work naturally with loops, membership checks, copying, slicing, and collection helpers.
Functions are flexible: named functions, anonymous functions, arrow functions, closures, recursion, defaults, named arguments, and higher-order helpers are all part of the language.
Objects are dynamic but structured: classes, constructors, inheritance, methods, callable objects, bracket access, static behavior, and operator/magic methods let you choose between plain maps and richer objects.
Numerical work is built in: tensor constructors, indexing, _transforms, reductions, broadcasting-style helpers, statistics, and linear algebra functions live in the standard modules.
Made to travel: the same language can run as a native executable or as a WebAssembly/browser build.
Small enough to study: the compiler, VM, object model, module system, and garbage collector live in C source files that are approachable for language/runtime hacking.

Quick Taste

import math:m

fun area(radius) {
    return m.PI * radius ** 2
}

radii = [2, 4, 8]

for r in radii {
    println("radius = " + r + ", area = " + area(r))
}

Language Tour

Expressive Collections

scores = [91, 72, 88, 91, 64, 72]

unique = {91, 72, 88, 64}
curved = [min(score + 5, 100) : score in scores]
honors = []

for score in curved
    if score >= 90
        honors += score

println("unique scores: " + unique)
println("honors: " + honors)
println("top three-ish: " + curved[0:3])

Functions and Closures

fun make_counter(start = 0) {
    let value = start

    return () -> {
        value += 1
        return value
    }
}

next_id = make_counter(100)
println(next_id()) // 101
println(next_id()) // 102

Classes, Inheritance, and Callable Objects

class Model {
    parameters() {
        return []
    }
}

class Linear: Model {
    constructor(w, b) {
        this.w = w
        this.b = b
    }

    call(x) {
        return this.w * x + this.b
    }

    parameters() {
        return [this.w, this.b]
    }

    format() {
        return "Linear(w=" + this.w + ", b=" + this.b + ")"
    }
}

model = Linear(2, 1)
println(model(10))      // callable object
println(model.parameters())

Operator Hooks

Objects can participate in operators by defining compute methods, which makes domain objects feel native without changing the VM for every new type.

import lang

class Vec2 {
    constructor(x, y) {
        this.x = x
        this.y = y
    }

    compute(op, other) {
        if op == lang.OP_ADD
            return Vec2(this.x + other.x, this.y + other.y)
    }

    format() {
        return "Vec2(" + this.x + ", " + this.y + ")"
    }
}

println(Vec2(2, 3) + Vec2(4, 1))

Tensors for Numerical Code

import tensor:t

x = t.from([[1, 2], [3, 4]])
w = t.eye(2, 2)

println(t.shape(x))
println(t.matmult(x, w))
println(t.mean(x))

Plotting and Visualization

Pilang includes native SDL-backed drawing and plotting modules for quick visual feedback while experimenting with numerical code, simulations, and machine-learning examples. The plot module covers 2D charts such as loss curves, while plot3d supports interactive 3D surface, mesh, and wireframe plots.

import draw
import plot

let ctx = draw.canvas(480, 480, "Training Loss")
let chart = plot.chart(ctx)

plot.line(chart, steps, losses, draw.COLOR_RED)
plot.title(chart, "Training Loss")
plot.xlabel(chart, "step")
plot.ylabel(chart, "loss")
plot.grid(chart, true)

plot.show(chart)
draw.run(ctx)

Run Pilang

From the repository root on Windows:

You can also use the shorthand form:

Show available commands:

Developer helpers:

pilang dis test.pi
pilang dis -o bytecode.txt test.pi
pilang fmt test.pi
pilang min test.pi

fmt and min rewrite the target file in place and use the JavaScript utilities in utils/, so Node.js and the formatter/minifier modules must be available.

Build From Source

The repository includes a Makefile for native and browser builds. On Windows with MinGW available, use make from the repository root. Some MinGW installs expose this as mingw32-make.

Common targets:

make release: build the optimized native executable, release/pilang.exe.
make debug: build a debug native executable with DEBUG_BUILD enabled at release/pilang.exe.
make web: build the Emscripten/WebAssembly output in release/.
make run: build and run the native executable.
make test: build the native executable and run python tools/run_tests.py.
make clean: remove generated build outputs.

The native build expects MinGW GCC and the SDL2 development libraries used by the project. The browser build expects Emscripten's emcc.

Project Layout

pi_*.c, pi_*.h: core compiler, parser, VM, values, objects, modules, and runtime internals.
builtin/: built-in native modules.
libs/: Pilang libraries written in .pi.
ML/: numerical and machine-learning experiments written in Pilang.
release/: local build outputs.
docs/: language documentation and reference material.
tests/: examples and regression tests grouped by language area.

Documentation

Start with the documentation index, then explore:

Testing

Run the test suite with:

python tools/run_tests.py

Tests cover core language behavior, tensors, modules, object/class behavior, runtime types, built-ins, and larger example programs.

Website

The language website and playground are available at:

https://pi-lang.netlify.app/

Use it to read docs, browse examples, and try Pilang in the browser.

License

This project is licensed under the terms in LICENSE.

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