Novi Programming Language

Novi is an independent programming language created by Glydex Studio. It is an early developer preview (v0.1.x) focused on a clean language pipeline and a small, understandable core.

Novi is not a clone of Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, C, Java, Rust, or another existing language. The project has its own lexer, parser, abstract syntax tree, runtime values, environments, interpreter, diagnostics, and command-line interface.

Philosophy

Novi starts small on purpose:

• readable syntax with ; terminated statements and { } blocks;
• explicit language constructs such as say, check, and each;
• a real source-to-AST-to-runtime pipeline;
• clear runtime and parser errors with source positions;
• an implementation that can evolve without replacing the interpreter with generated JavaScript.

Current features

Novi v0.1.0 currently implements:

• dynamically typed variables;
• strings, numbers, booleans (yes / no) and none;
• say output;
• arithmetic and operator precedence;
• string concatenation;
• functions with parameters and return;
• check / otherwise conditions;
• each loops over arrays;
• arrays and indexing;
• objects with Novi-native properties;
• property access and .length for arrays and strings;
• logical operators and, or, and unary not;
• lexer, recursive-descent parser, AST and interpreter diagnostics;
• the novi CLI;
• automated lexer, parser and interpreter tests.

Installation

Novi currently targets Node.js and TypeScript for its implementation.

Clone or download the project, then install development dependencies:

npm install
npm run build

The CLI entry point is dist/src/cli/main.js, and the package exposes the command novi through its bin field.

For a local shell command after linking the package:

npm link
novi --version

Your first Novi program

Create hello.novi:

say "Hello world from Novi!";

Run it:

novi hello.novi

Expected output:

Hello world from Novi!

Syntax

Variables

name = "Nexus";
age = 19;
online = yes;
state = none;

Output

say "Hello world";
say name;

say is a Novi language statement handled by the interpreter. It is not implemented as a JavaScript function injected into the parser.

Arithmetic

a = 10;
b = 5;

sum = a + b;
difference = a - b;
product = a * b;
division = a / b;
remainder = a % b;

Strings

name = "Glydex";
message = "Hello " + name;
say message;

Functions

greet(name) {
    say "Hello " + name;
}

greet("Nexus");

Functions can return values:

add(a, b) {
    return a + b;
}

result = add(5, 10);
say result;

Conditions

age = 19;

check(age >= 18) {
    say "Adult";
} otherwise {
    say "Minor";
}

Supported comparisons:

==  !=  >  <  >=  <=

Logical operators:

and  or  not

The unary ! form of not is also accepted.

Arrays

users = [
    "Nexus",
    "Lyra",
    "Dante"
];

say users[0];
say users.length;
say users;

Each loops

each(user in users) {
    say user;
}

Objects

Object properties use Novi's assignment syntax and end with semicolons:

user = {
    name = "Nexus";
    age = 2;
};

say user.name;
say user["name"];

.length is available on arrays and strings.

CLI

novi file.novi
novi --help
novi --version

On language errors, the CLI reports a Novi error with the source filename, line and column and exits with a non-zero status.

Project structure

novi-language/
├── examples/
│   ├── hello.novi
│   ├── variables.novi
│   ├── functions.novi
│   ├── conditions.novi
│   ├── loops.novi
│   ├── arrays.novi
│   └── objects.novi
├── src/
│   ├── ast/
│   │   └── nodes.ts
│   ├── cli/
│   │   └── main.ts
│   ├── interpreter/
│   │   └── interpreter.ts
│   ├── lexer/
│   │   └── lexer.ts
│   ├── parser/
│   │   └── parser.ts
│   ├── runtime/
│   │   ├── environment.ts
│   │   └── value.ts
│   ├── errors.ts
│   ├── index.ts
│   ├── source.ts
│   ├── token.ts
│   └── version.ts
├── tests/
│   ├── helpers.ts
│   ├── interpreter.test.ts
│   ├── lexer.test.ts
│   └── parser.test.ts
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── LICENSE
├── package.json
├── README.md
└── tsconfig.json

The execution pipeline is:

Novi source
    ↓
Lexer
    ↓
Tokens
    ↓
Parser
    ↓
AST
    ↓
Interpreter
    ↓
Novi Runtime
    ↓
Output

Development

Build the implementation:

npm run build

Run the automated test suite:

npm test

The test suite executes Novi programs and covers tokenization, AST construction, arithmetic, strings, variables, functions, returns, conditions, arrays, loops, objects, property access, parser errors and runtime errors.

Examples

The examples/ directory contains runnable .novi programs for the v0.1 language core.

novi examples/hello.novi
novi examples/variables.novi
novi examples/functions.novi
novi examples/conditions.novi
novi examples/loops.novi
novi examples/arrays.novi
novi examples/objects.novi

Roadmap

v0.1.x

Core interpreter and language foundations.

v0.2.x

Better standard library and additional language features.

v0.3.x

Modules and imports.

v0.4.x

Bytecode and virtual-machine research.

v1.0.x

A stable language specification and a mature implementation.

These roadmap items are future work and are not part of the current v0.1.0 implementation.

License

Novi is released under the MIT License. See LICENSE.

Developer

Glydex Studio

Novi Programming Language — early developer preview, v0.1.0.