Getting Started¶

Anatomy of a Recolon Program¶

Let’s review a basic “Hello, world!” program in Recolon. Here’s the first piece of the puzzle:

fn main() {

}

main();

These lines define a function named main. In Recolon, every function needs to be explicitly called to be executed. The only exception to this rule is the compose() function, which is designed to run automatically when defined.

The function body is wrapped in curly brackets {}. Recolon requires these brackets around all function bodies. It’s considered good practice to place the opening curly bracket on the same line as the function declaration, with a single space in between.

Note

If you want to maintain a consistent style across Recolon projects, consider creating or using a custom formatter tool. Such a tool can help ensure your code adheres to a uniform style, making it easier to read and maintain.

The body of the main function holds the following code:

log("Hello, world!");

This line is responsible for printing text to the screen. Here are four important details to keep in mind:

Indentation: Recolon style is to indent using a tab.
Function Calls: log is a built-in function in Recolon. Built-in functions are reserved and cannot be overwritten by redefining them within your code.
Strings: The "Hello, world!" string is passed as an argument to the log function, which then outputs the string to the screen.
Semicolon: Each line in Recolon typically ends with a semicolon (;), signaling the end of an expression. This allows the interpreter to know where one statement ends and the next begins.