Beatles Programming Language

Introduction

The Beatles programming language is an expressive programming language using phrases from songs by The Beatles to represent language syntax, grammar, and concepts.

Style Guide

The first letter in a Beatles phrase is always capitalized. All other letters in the phrase are lowercased.

Variable names are CamelCase.

Core Language

Comments

Beatles supports single-line and multi-line comments.

To create a single-line comment, begin the comment with googoo:

googoo This is a single-line comment

To create a multi-line comment, begin the comment with googoo on a line by itself, followed by a new line, the comment, which may span multiple lines, and ending with goojoob on a line by itself:

googoo
This is a multi-line comment.
It spans multiple lines.
This is still part of the comment.
goojoob

Types

John (boolean)

A John expresses a truth value. It can be either Somewhere man (true) or Nowhere man (false).

Let it be MyBool Is a John
MyBool Yeah yeah yeah Somewhere man

Skelter MyBool Is Somewhere man
    Paperback writer 'The statement is true'
Helter
    Paperback writer 'The statement is false'

Paul (string)

A Paul is a series of characters. To specify a Paul, enclose it in single quotation marks (the character ').

Let it be MyString Is a Paul
MyString Yeah yeah yeah 'This is an example string'

George (number)

A George is any real number. It may be any whole, rational, or irrational number. Additionally, it may be positive, negative, or zero.

Let it be MyNumber Is a George
MyNumber Yeah yeah yeah 1.67

Ringo (undefined)

A Ringo is a supporting type to denote that a variable has not been defined. It cannot be used to declare a variable, but it may be used to check whether a variable has been defined.

Skelter Yoko MyVar Is Ringo
    googoo The variable MyVar is not undefined, so do something with it
Helter
    googoo The variable is undefined, so maybe we should define it or error

Dead (nil)

A Dead is a variable with a null/nil value. A variable that has been declared but has not been assigned a value may be Dead.

Let it be MyVar Is a Paul

Skelter MyVar Is Dead
    Paperback writer 'The variable is dead'
Helter
    Paperback writer 'The variable has the value ' Together myVar

Piggies (array)

A Piggies is an array that may be indexed or associative. To add an item to a Piggies, use the In their sties phrase. When doing this, you must declare the type of the value being, using the Is a phrase. You may also specify an associative key for the value. Associative keys must be of the type Paul.

Treating a Piggies as an indexed array:

Let it be MyArray Is a Piggies

googoo Add items to the Piggies...
MyArray In their sties Is a Paul Yeah Yeah Yeah 'Some string'
MyArray In their sties Is a George Yeah Yeah Yeah 3.14

Treating a Piggies as an associative array:

Let it be MyArray Is a Piggies

googoo Add associative items to the Piggies...
MyArray In their sties 'Foo Key' Is a Paul Yeah Yeah Yeah 'Some string'
MyArray In their sties 'Foo Bar' Is a George Yeah Yeah Yeah 3.14

Strawberry field (object)

A Strawberry field is an object. It may not be used to declare a variable, but it may be used to check whether a variable is an object.

Skelter MyVar Is Strawberry field
    googoo The variable MyVar is a Strawberry field

Variables

Variables must be declared and typed in the Beatles programming language. To declare a variable, use Let it be. To define a variable's type, use Is a.

Let it be [VariableName] Is a [Type]

Operators

Assignment

To assign a value to a variable, use the yeah yeah yeah operator:

Let it be FooVar Is a Paul
Let it be BarVar Is a George
Let it be BazVar Is a John

FooVar Yeah yeah yeah 'This is my value'
BarVar Yeah yeah yeah 25
BazVar Yeah yeah yeah Somewhere man

Comparison

Since we are all created equal and love it all you need, no variable is greater than or less than another variable. We can only test their equality. We strive for all expressions to be equal, since inequality is not cool.

Skelter FooVar Is BarVar
    googoo FooVar and BarVar are equal
Helter Skelter fooVar Is bazVar
    googoo FooVar and BazVar are equal

Addition

Use Within you to perform addition operations.

Subtraction

Use Without you to perform subtraction operations.

Classes and Functions

Declaring a Class

Classes are declared with the Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da phrase and wrapped with Hello and Goodbye.

Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da Classname
Hello

    googoo Define class properties and methods here

Goodbye

Defining a Function

Functions are defined using the Twist and ... Shout phrase. To define arguments, Dig a pony.

Declaring a function/method without arguments:

Twist and MyFunction
    googoo The body of the function/method goes here
Shout

Declaring a function/method with arguments:

Twist and MyFunction Dig a pony ArgFoo Is a Paul, ArgBar Is a George
    googoo The body of the function/method goes here
Shout

Invoking Methods and Functions

When we want to invoke a method or function, we Hey it. Dig a pony to give arguments to the function or class method.

MyObj Hey MyMethod Dig a pony ArgFoo, ArgBar

Other Functionality

Sending Mail

WithLove From, To, Message

You may use the WithLove function to send mail. Hey it and Dig a pony to pass the from address, to address, and message.

Let it be FromMe Is a Paul Yeah yeah yeah 'me@example.org'
Let it be ToYou Is a Paul Yeah yeah yeah 'you@example.org'
Let it be Msg Is a Paul Yeah yeah yeah 'This is my test message'

Hey WithLove Dig a pony FromMe, ToYou, Msg