Awesome

Rye language 🌾

Rye language 🌾

visit ryelang.org, our blog or join our reddit group for latest examples and development updates

What is Rye

Rye is a high level, dynamic programming language based on ideas from Rebol, flavored by Factor, Linux shells and Golang. It's still an experiment in language design, but it should slowly become more and more useful in real world.

It features a Golang based interpreter and console and could also be seen as (modest) Go's scripting companion as Go's libraries are quite easy to integrate, and Rye can be embedded into Go programs as a scripting or config language.

I believe that as language becomes higher level it starts touching the user interface boundary, besides being a language we have great emphasis on interactive use (Rye shell) where we will explore that.

Status: Alpha

Core ideas of the language are formed. Most experimenting, at least at this stage, is done. Right now, focus is on making the core and runtime useful for anyone who might decide to try it.

This means we are improving the Rye console, documentation and improving the runtime and core functions.

Language overview

Rye is homoiconic, it has no keywords or special forms (everything is a function call, everything is a value), everything returns something (is an expression), has more syntax types than your usual language, functions are first class citizens, so are blocks of code and scopes (contexts). It has multiple dialects (specific interpreters).

Although it seems contrary to each other Rye tries to be very flexible but also safer where possible. For example, it doesn't even have a syntax for changing state directly outside current context (parent or sub). It separates between pure and impure functions, while most of builtins are pure. Validation dialect is part of its core, so input validation is easy and distinguishable/explicit, not sprinkled around other code. Few functions that change state in place end with "!" (and usually don't need to be used). Functions never return null, they return result or a specific failure (which is a Rye value too, and you can handle on-specific-spot).

Few one-liners

print "Hello World"

"Hello World" .replace "World" "Mars" |print
; prints: Hello Mars

"12 8 12 16 8 6" .load .unique .sum
; returns: 42

{ "Anne" "Joan" "Adam" } |filter { .first = "A" } |for { .print } 
; prints:
; Anne
; Adam

fac: fn { x } { either x = 1 { 1 } { x * fac x - 1 } }
; function that calculates factorial

range 1 10 |map { .fac } |print\csv
; prints: 1,2,6,24,120,720,5040,40320,362880,3628800

kind: "admin"
open sqlite://data.db |query { select * from user where kind = ?kind }
; returns: Spreadsheet of admins

read %name.txt |fix { "Anonymous" } |post* https://example.com/postname 'text
; makes HTTP post of the name read from a file, or "Anonymous" if file failed to be read

Meet Rye

Visit this set of pages to find out more (work in progress):

Meet Rye

Examples

These pages are littered with examples. You can find them on this README page, on our blog, on Introductions, but also:

Examples folder - unorganized so far, will change
Solutions to simple compression puzzle

Asciinema demos

Rye's focus is also interactive use. Check out these asciinema demos:

Rye vs. Python

Python is the lingua franca of dynamic programming languages, so comparing examples in Python and Rye can be helpful to some:

Simple compression puzzle - from Python to Rye solution

Modules

The author of Factor once said that at the end it's not about the language, but the libraries. I can only agree, adding libraries, and distribution.

Base

Core builtin functions ⭐⭐⭐ 🧪~80%
Bcrypt - password hashing
Bson - binary (j)son
Crypto - cryptographic functions ⭐
Email - email generation and parsing
Html - html parsing
Http - http servers and clients ⭐⭐
IO (!) - can be excluded at build time ⭐⭐
Json - json parsing ⭐⭐
Mysql - database ⭐
Postgresql - database ⭐
Psutil - linux process management
Regexp - regular expressions ⭐ 🧪~50%
Smtpd - smtp server (receiver)
Sqlite - database ⭐⭐
Sxml - sax XML like streaming dialect
Validation - validation dialect ⭐⭐ 🧪~50%

Contrib

Amazon AWS
Bleve full text search
Cayley graph database
OpenAI - OpenAI API
Postmark - email sending service
Telegram bot - telegram bots

legend: ⭐ priority , 🧪 tests

External extensions

Fyne is a cross platform pure Go GUI toolkit that we integrated into Rye. Gio is immediate mode GUI library for Go, and Ebitengine is a 2D game endgine for Go.

Fyne Feedback example

Follow development

Rye blog

For most up-to date information on the language, and its development, visit our old and new blog.

Ryelang reddit

This is another place for updates and also potential discussions. You are welcome to join our reddit group.

Github

If code speaks to you, our Github page is the central location for all things Rye. You are welcome to collaborate, post Issues or PR-s, there are tons of things to do and improve :)

Getting Rye

Rye is developed and should work on Linux and Mac and Windows. We also have a Docker and as WASM modules. If you need additional architecture or OS, post an Issue. Rye could run anywhere Go compiles to.

Binaries

You can find precompiled Binaries for Linux and macOS under Releases.

Docker images are published under Packages.

Homebrew

Rye is avaliable for instalation through brew command: brew install ryelang

More about it: Homebrew formulae

Docker images

Binary Docker image

This image includes Linux, Rye binary ready for use and Emacs-nox editor.

Docker image: ghcr.io/refaktor/rye

Run it via:

docker run -ti ghcr.io/refaktor/rye

Dev Docker image

The repository comes with a local Docker image that builds rye and allows you to do so.

docker build -t refaktor/rye -f .docker/Dockerfile .

Run 🏃‍♂️ the rye REPL with:

docker run -ti refaktor/rye

Building Rye from source

Use official documentation or lines below to install Golang 1.21.5 https://go.dev/doc/install (at the time of writing):

wget https://go.dev/dl/go1.21.5.linux-amd64.tar.gz
rm -rf /usr/local/go && tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.21.5.linux-amd64.tar.gz
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin
go version

Clone the main branch from the Rye repository:

git clone https://github.com/refaktor/rye.git && cd rye

Build the tiny version of Rye (with minimal modules):

go build -tags "b_tiny" -o bin/rye

Build the normal version of Rye (with most "batteries" packed in):

go build -o bin/rye 

# or just run
./build

Run the rye file:

bin/rye hello.rye

Run the Rye Console

bin/rye

Install build-essential if you don't already have it, for packages that require cgo (like sqlite):

sudo apt install build-essential

Build WASM version

Rye can also work inside your browser or any other WASM container. I will add examples, html pages and info about it, but to build it:

GOOS=js GOARCH=wasm go build -tags "b_tiny" -o wasm/rye.wasm main_wasm.go

# or just use
./buildwasm
# which will also start a webserver, visit http://localhost:8085/ryeshell/ then

Tests and function reference

Run the Rye code tests.

cd tests
../bin/rye main.rye test

Build the function reference out of tests:

cd tests
../bin/rye main.rye doc

Editor support

Rye has Syntax highlighting for Emacs and VS Code. For VS Code just search for ryelang in the Extension marketplace. For Emacs it will be published soon on github.

Rye related projects

Rye-fyne - external binding for Fyne GUI toolkit
Rye-gio - external binding for Gioui GUI toolkit (wip)
Rye-ebitengine - external binding for Ebitengine game engine (wip)
ryegen - Rye binging generation toolkit (wip)

Questions, contact

You can post an Issue visit github Discussions or contact me through <a href="mailto:janko .itm+rye[ ]gmail .com">gmail</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/refaktor">twitter</a>.</p>