Simple is Better
 

"I don't want to die in a language I can't understand."
               - Jorge Luis Borges link



Latest version: 0.8.2
Release date: 24th November 2020

Price: Free. No nags and No expiry date.
Source code: Incuded.
Self Hosted: No other tools required to modify/rebuild Phix.

  • -- Phix has just five builtin data types 
--
--      <======== object =========>
--      |                |
--      +-atom           +-sequence
--        |                |
--        +-integer        +-string
--

  • -- Phix is simple
puts(1, "Hello, World!") 
-- and can be interpreted or compiled: 
$ p hello
Hello, World! 
$ p -c hello
Hello, World! 

  • -- Phix is multi-platform 
C:\Phix> p hello
Hello, World! 
~/phix$ .\p hello
Hello, World! 
?iff(platform()=WINDOWS?"Windows":"Linux")

  • -- user-defined types made simple 
type pair(object p)
    return sequence(p) and length(p)=2 
end type 
pair p1 = {2,3} -- ok 
pair p2 = {2,4,6} -- fails 
p1 &= 0 -- fails 

  • -- line comments
/*
   multiline comments
    /* nestable */
*/

  • -- naturally polymorphic
?sort({1, 1.5, "oranges", -9, 1e300, 100, "apples"})
Output:
{-9,1,1.5,100,1e+300,"apples","oranges"}

  • -- one difference worth learning
sequence s1 = {1,2,3}, s2 = {4,5,6}
?s1&s2
?append(s1,s2)
Output:
{1,2,3,4,5,6}
{1,2,3,{4,5,6}}

  • -- negative subscripts are permitted
sequence s = tagset(6)      ?s
s[-2..-1] = {-2,-1}         ?s
--s[5..6] = {-2,-1} -- equivalent
Output:
{1,2,3,4,5,6}
{1,2,3,4,-2,-1}

  • -- fully mutable strings
string this = "feed"
string that = this  -- both=="feed"
that[2..3] = "oo"   -- that:="food"
this[1] = 'n'       -- this:="need"
?{this,that}
Output:
{"need","food"}

  • -- variable length slice substitution
string s = "food"       ?s
s[2..3] = "e"           ?s
s[2..1] = "east"        ?s
Output:
"food"
"fed"
"feasted"

  • -- Phix comes with batteries included...
include builtins\timedate.e 
set_timedate_formats({"h:m:s"})
timedate start = parse_date_string("10:37:15"),
         ended = parse_date_string("12:38:14")
?elapsed(timedate_diff(start,ended))
Output:
"2 hours and 59s"

  • -- associative arrays aka dictionaries
setd("one",1)
setd(2,"duo")
?getd("one")
?getd(2)
Output:
1
"duo"

  • -- exception handling
try
    integer i = 1/0
catch e
    ?e[E_USER]
end try
puts(1,"still running...\n")
Output:
"attempt to divide by 0"
still running...

  • -- regular expressions
include builtins\regex.e
?gsub(`\ba\b`,"I am a string","another")
Output:
"I am another string"