Chest Programming Language

Chest is a programming language designed to be easy and to be learned quickly. To become "easy", the Chest language try to have its syntax closer to our real world using familiar concepts.

Why a new programming language?

The shortage of developers worldwide indicates that programming languages are not easy to learn for everyone. In Brazil, most of IT’s university students give up their course before finishing their degree. Most of these languages are also only in English, which adds more difficulty for those who are not fluent in this language and have to learn it along with programming.

The Chest language was designed to be learned very quickly even for people who never developed before. Instead of make the new developers understand the main developing concepts, the Chest language try to adapt itself to concepts that are common in our real world.

How easy is it?

For example: Let's say that you want to build a business building. How a business is divided? Well, a business is divided into offices. What we have in offices? Employees and some furniture. The furniture by itself does not do anything beyond to keep some storage. But the employees are supposed to do something in the office, they always have a function.

Let's say that there is an office, in some building. You are inside this office. This office has a very old chest. But there is something very weird in this chest, there is a phrase in this chest saying "Hello World!" and it is showing up to you!

Done, you already know the basic concepts of Chest language!

Looks now this concept as the code:

chest helloWorldChest
  "Hello World"
show helloWorldChest // output: "Hello World"

The same example a little bit more complex, using a concept of OOO.

building MyBusinessBuilding
  office Reception
    employee Reception
      chest helloWorldChest
        "Hello World"
      show helloWorldChest

Another example:

building MyBusinessBuilding
  office Lobby
    employee NameChecker
      chest name
        go Console
          poke ReadLine
      chest 
        "John"
      go Console
        poke WriteLine
          "The name is " + rightName
      decide
        name == rightName
        go Console
          poke WriteLine
            "The name is John"

Is it complete?

It is still only a concept. There was a older attepmt to build a compiler, but this project was discontinued.

Programming Language Reference

Spacing

The spacing standard is like in Python, it is tabular. This means that the code blocks inside a building, an office, an employee, a chest, or a decide command must be indented with a tab or four spaces.

Keywords

building

The base of the language, like a namespace or a package in other languages. All parts of the language must be inside a building.

// Chest
building MyBusinessBuilding
  ...
  
// C#
namespace MyBusinessBuilding {
    ...
}

// Java
package MyBusinessBuilding;
...

// JavaScript
var MyBusinessBuilding = {
    ...
};

office

An object type, like a class or an object in other languages. Instead of being an object, it is like a place inside the building.

// Chest
office Reception
  ...
  
// C#
class Reception {
    ...
}

// Java
class Reception {
    ...
}

// JavaScript
var Reception = {
    ...
};

employee

A method, like a void method or a function in other languages. It is supposed to do something in the office.

// Chest
employee Reception

// C#
void Reception() {
    ...
}

// Java
void Reception() {
    ...
}

// JavaScript
function Reception() {
    ...
}

chest

Chest is a variable (also this programming language name), like a string or a number in other languages. It can contain text or numbers, like a double.

// Chest
chest helloWorldChest
  "Hello World"
or 
chest helloWorldChest
  1.0

// C#
string helloWorldChest = "Hello World";
or
double helloWorldChest = 1.0;

// Java
String helloWorldChest = "Hello World";
or
double helloWorldChest = 1.0;

// JavaScript
var helloWorldChest = "Hello World";
or
var helloWorldChest = 1.0;

go

A command to go to like a physical place, like accessing an object or a property in other programming languages. It is used to go to an office or a chest.

// Chest
go Console 
  poke WriteLine 
    ...
or 
go helloWorldChest 
  poke Length 

// C#
Console.WriteLine(...);
or
helloWorldChest.Length;

// Java
System.out.println(...);
or
helloWorldChest.length();

// JavaScript
console.log(...);
or
helloWorldChest.length;

poke

A command to poke something, like using a dot or calling a method in other languages. It is used to poke an employee or a chest inside an office.

// Chest
go Console 
  poke ReadLine 
or 
go helloWorldChest 
  poke ToUpper 
  
// C#
Console.ReadLine();
or
helloWorldChest.ToUpper();

// Java
scanner.nextLine();
or
helloWorldChest.toUpperCase();

// JavaScript
prompt();
or
helloWorldChest.toUpperCase();

show

A command to show something, like printing to the console or alerting in other languages. It is used to show the content of a chest.

// Chest 
show helloWorldChest 

// C#
Console.WriteLine(helloWorldChest);

// Java
System.out.println(helloWorldChest);

// JavaScript
console.log(helloWorldChest);
or
alert(helloWorldChest);

decide

A command to decide something, like an if condition or a ternary operator in other languages. It is used to compare chests and execute different code blocks.

// Chest 
decide 
  helloWorldChest == "1" 
    ... 
  helloWorldChest != "1" 
    ... 
 
// C#
if (helloWorldChest == "1") {
    ...
} else if (helloWorldChest != "1") {
    ...
}

// Java
if (helloWorldChest.equals("1")) {
    ...
} else if (!helloWorldChest.equals("1")) {
    ...
}

// JavaScript
if (helloWorldChest == "1") {
    ...
} else if (helloWorldChest != "1") {
    ...
}
or 
(helloWorldChest == "1") ? ... : (helloWorldChest != "1") ? ... : ...;

Detailed code example

Below we have an example using C# as reference.

// the building is like a base of the language, it is like the "namespace" of C#. All parts of the language must be inside a building.
// the type is "building" and the building name is "MyBusinessBuilding"
building MyBusinessBuilding
    // the office is like is object type, it is like the "class" of C#. Instead of being a object, in this language it is like a place inside the building.
    // The spacing standard is like in Python, it is tabular. In this case, "office Lobby" is inside the building "MyBusinessBuilding"
    // the type is "office" and the office name is "Lobby"
    office Lobby
        // the "employee" is like a method void from C#.
        // the type is "employee" and the employee name is "NameChecker"
        employee NameChecker
            // "chest" is a variable type and variable name is "name". It could be something like a string of a double type.
            // This code is generating something like in C#: "string chest = Console.ReadLine()"
            chest name 
                // A command to go to like a physical place, like accessing an object or a property in other programming languages.
                go Console
                    // The "poke" type works like a "." in C#. It is now giviving ".ReadLine()" to acess methods or properties insinde an object.
                    poke ReadLine
            chest rightName
                "John"
            go Console 
                poke WriteLine
                    "The name is {0}"
                    name
            // A command to decide something, like an if condition or a ternary operator in other languages. It is used to compare chests and execute different code blocks.
            // This block of code generating like in C#: "if(name == rightName) { Console.WriteLine("The name is John") else if(name != rightName) { Console.WriteLine("The name is not John")}"
            decide
                name == rightName
                    go Console
                        poke WriteLine
                            "The name is John"

                name != rightName
                    go Console
                        poke WriteLine
                            "The name is NOT John"