🌲 Ironwood

A beginner-friendly, Scratch-inspired scripting language that reads like plain English — compiled to a single C++ file with no dependencies.

let name = ask "What's your name?"
say "Hello, " + name + "!"

let nums = [3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9, 2, 6]
say sort nums

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Features

• Plain-English syntax — reads almost like pseudocode
• Scratch-style operations — length of list, item 2 of list, keep items in list where fn
• Full language features — functions, lambdas, classes, error handling, modules
• String operations — split, join, trim, replace, upper/lowercase, substring
• File I/O — read, write, append files
• Networking — HTTP fetch (GET/POST/PUT/etc.)
• Subprocess — run shell commands
• JSON — parse and serialize
• Single-file interpreter — one .cpp file, no external libraries

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Building

Linux / macOS

g++ -std=c++17 -O2 -o ironwood ironwood_v2.cpp

Windows (MinGW)

g++ -std=c++17 -O2 -o ironwood ironwood_v2.cpp -lws2_32

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Running a Program

./ironwood myprogram.irw
./ironwood myprogram.irw arg1 arg2    ; pass command-line arguments

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Quick Tour

Output & Input

say "Hello, world!"
let name = ask "Enter your name: "
say "Hi, " + name
pause                                  ; wait for Enter

Variables & Math

let x = 10
let y = 3.14
set x = x + 1
say x * y
say x % 3                             ; modulo

Conditionals

if x > 5
  say "big"
else
  say "small"
end

; Chain multiple conditions by nesting if inside else
if x > 10
  say "large"
else
  if x > 5
    say "medium"
  else
    say "small"
  end
end

; Inline ternary
let label = if x > 5 then "big" else "small"

Loops

while x > 0
  say x
  set x = x - 1
end

for each item in [1, 2, 3]
  say item
end

; break and continue work inside loops

Functions

function greet(name)
  return "Hello, " + name + "!"
end

say greet("World")

; Lambda (inline function)
let double = function(x)
  return x * 2
end
say double(5)

Lists

let nums = [10, 20, 30]
add 40 to nums
say length of nums                    ; 4
say item 2 of nums                    ; 20  (1-indexed)

let evens = keep items in nums where function(n)
  return n % 2 == 0
end

say sort nums
say sort nums by function(n) return -n end   ; descending

Dictionaries (Objects)

let person = {name: "Alice", age: 30}
say person.name
set person.age = 31

say has "name" in person             ; true
say keys of person
say values of person

Strings

let s = "  Hello, World!  "
say trim s
say uppercase s
say lowercase s
say split s by ", "
say replace "World" with "Ironwood" in s
say index of "World" in s            ; 7 (0-based, -1 if not found)
say chars 1 to 5 of s                ; "Hello"
say length of s

Classes

class Animal
  let name = "unknown"
  let sound = "..."

  function speak()
    say self.name + " says " + self.sound
  end
end

let cat = new Animal()
set cat.name = "Whiskers"
set cat.sound = "meow"
call cat.speak()

Error Handling

try
  throw "something went wrong"
catch err
  say "Caught: " + err
end

File I/O

write "Hello\nWorld" to file "output.txt"
append "\nLine 3" to file "output.txt"

let contents = read file "output.txt"
say contents

let lineList = lines of file "output.txt"
for each line in lineList
  say line
end

let exists = file exists "output.txt"
say exists                            ; true

JSON

let data = {name: "Alice", scores: [95, 87, 92]}
let jsonStr = json of data
say jsonStr

let parsed = parse json jsonStr
say parsed.name

Networking (HTTP)

let res = fetch "http://example.com/api/data"
if res.ok
  say res.body
end

; POST request
let res = fetch "http://example.com/api" with {
  method: "POST",
  body: json of {user: "alice"},
  headers: {Content-Type: "application/json"}
}
say res.status

Subprocess

let result = run "echo hello"
if result.ok
  say result.output
end
say result.code                        ; exit code

Modules

; get "stdlib" as std
let m = std.math
say m.sqrt(16)
say m.floor(3.9)
say m.random()

; Load a .irw file as a module
get "utils.irw" as utils
call utils.myFunction()

Command-Line Arguments

; Access via the built-in `args` list
say length of args
say item 1 of args

Misc

say type of 42          ; "number"
say type of "hello"     ; "string"
say type of []          ; "list"
say type of {}          ; "object"
say type of null        ; "null"
say type of true        ; "bool"

; Comments start with semicolons
; say "this won't run"

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Built-in Functions

Function	Description
say <expr>	Print to stdout
ask <prompt>	Read a line from stdin
pause	Wait for Enter
len(x)	Length of string or list
parseInt(x)	Parse integer from string
parseFloat(x)	Parse float from string
toString(x)	Convert any value to string
math.abs(n)	Absolute value
math.floor(n)	Floor
math.ceil(n)	Ceiling
math.sqrt(n)	Square root
math.pow(a,b)	Power
math.random()	Random float 0–1

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Standard Library (stdlib)

get "stdlib" as std

std.math.sqrt(x)
std.math.pow(a, b)
std.math.random()
std.io.alert("message")
std.io.prompt("Enter: ")
std.io.confirm("Sure?")    ; returns true/false

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Language Cheatsheet

Feature	Syntax
Variable	let x = 5
Reassign	set x = 10
Print	say "hello"
Input	let x = ask "prompt"
If/else	if cond ... else ... end
Nested else-if	if cond ... else ↵ if cond2 ... end ↵ end
Ternary	if cond then a else b
While	while cond ... end
For each	for each x in list ... end
Function	function name(a,b) ... end
Lambda	function(x) ... end
Return	return value
Class	class Name ... end
New instance	new ClassName()
Self	self.field
Try/catch	try ... catch err ... end
Throw	throw "message"
Import	get "module" as alias
Comment	; this is a comment

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Version History

Version	Features
v1.0	Variables, arithmetic, if/else, while, functions, lists
v1.1	Scratch-style list ops (length of, item N of, keep items where)
v2.0	Classes, try/catch/throw, dict ops (has, keys, values), file I/O
v3.0	Lambdas, string ops, sort, ternary, JSON, command-line args, modules
v3.1	HTTP fetch, subprocess (run), cross-platform (Linux/macOS/Windows)

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License

SLOC