README.md

Box is a text-based visual programming language inspired by Unreal Engine blueprint function graphs.

$ cat factorial.box

 ┌─ƒ(Factorial)───┐                     ┌─[Branch]─────┐                       ┌─[Set]─┐
 │               ►┼─────────────────────┼►       True ►┼───────────────────────┼►     ►┼─────────┐         ┌─[For Loop]───────────┐                   ┌───────┐
 │             n ○┼──┐               ┌──┼○      False ►┼──┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌───┼○      │         └─────────┼►          Loop body ►┼───────────────────┼►      │
 └────────────────┘  │    ┌────────┐ │  │              │  │  │  result ○┼──┘ ┌─┼○      │                   │                      │ ┌──────────┐ ┌────┼○  *=  │
             ┌────┐  └────┼○  >=  ○┼─┘  └──────────────┘  │  └──────────┘    │ └───────┘         ┌────┐    │                      │ │  result ○┼─┘  ┌─┼○      │
             │ 1 ○┼───────┼○       │                      │       ┌────┐     │                   │ 1 ○┼────┼○ start               │ └──────────┘    │ └───────┘
             └────┘       └────────┘                      │       │ 1 ○┼─────┘                   └────┘    │                      │                 │
                                                          │       └────┘                                   │               index ○┼─────────────────┘
                                                          │                        ┌────┐                  │                      │
                                                          │                        │ n ○┼─┐  ┌───────┐     │                      │
                                                          │                        └────┘ └──┼○  +   │     │                      │
                                                          │                        ┌────┐ ┌──┼○     ○┼─────┼○ end                 │
                                                          │                        │ 1 ○┼─┘  └───────┘     │                      │
                                                          │                        └────┘                  │                      │
                                                          │                                      ┌────┐    │                      │
                                                          │   ┌─[Return]─┐                       │ 1 ○┼────┼○ step                │
                                                   ┌────┐ └───┼►         │                       └────┘    │           Completed ►┼────┐
                                                   │ 1 ○┼─────┼○         │                                 └──────────────────────┘    │  ┌─[Return]─┐
                                                   └────┘     └──────────┘                                               ┌─────────┐   └──┼►         │
                                                                                                                         │ result ○┼──────┼○         │
                                                                                                                         └─────────┘      └──────────┘

$ box factorial.box -e 5
120

$ box factorial.box -o factorial.py

$ cat factorial.py
def Factorial(n):
    if (n >= 1):
        result = 1
        for index_8b6ee4f2 in range(1, (n + 1), 1):
            result *= index_8b6ee4f2
        return result
    else:
        return 1

Getting Started

Install the box interpreter with pip

pip3 install boxlang

Now open your text editor and start drawing your program! Check out existing samples here.

Anatomy of a Box

A Box has 2 types of ports: control flow ports (─►┼─) and data flow ports (─○┼─). These ports can additionally be classified as input or output ports. All ports to the left side of a box are input ports and all ports on the right side of the box are output ports.

Below, you can see a [For Loop] box which is a special type of box that the interpreter can parse - It has 1 input control flow port, 3 input data flow ports (start, end, and step), 2 output control flow ports (the loop body and completed control flows), and 1 output data flow port (the index)

Function Graphs

Box programs are function graphs. Functions have a single entry point designated by a node with the name of the Function containing a single output control flow port.

Here's a simple hello world example. This example declares a Greet() function that prints the string "Hello, World!" to the console. It calls the built-in print function.

Execute the above program with the box interpreter like so:

$ box samples/hello_world.box -e
Hello,World!

Features

• ✅ Function declarations
• ✅ Defining constants and variables
• ✅ Operators - Unary, binary, and assignment operators
• ✅ [Set] - set the value of variables
• ✅ Function calls - Call Python built-in functions
• ✅ [Branch] - if-else box
• ✅ [For Loop] - Python-style for loop with (start,end,step)
• ✅ [While Loop] - Python-style while loop
• ✅ [For Each] for iterables
• ✅ [Break] and [Continue] boxes
• ✅ [Return] box to return values from functions

Gotchas

• The interpreter will likely fail if you have tabs in your file - replace all tabs with the appropriate number of spaces
• There are a number of UNICODE character you'll need for this to work - Just look through the samples and COPY-PASTE (no, seriously)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome, have a look at the CONTRIBUTING.md document for more information.

License

The project is available under the MIT license.