The ucode programming language features a syntax that closely resembles ECMAScript 6. However, the ucode interpreter supports two distinct syntax modes: template mode and raw mode.

In template mode, ucode consumes Jinja-like templates that allow for the embedding of script code within the template structure. This mode enables the combination of expressive template constructs with JavaScript like functionality.

On the other hand, raw mode in ucode directly consumes ECMAScript 6-like syntax without any template-specific markup. This mode is mainly useful to develop standalone applications or libraries.

Template mode

By default, ucode is executed in raw mode, means it expects a given source file to only contain script code. By invoking the ucode interpreter with the -T flag or by using the utpl alias, the ucode interpreter is switched into template mode where the source file is expected to be a plaintext file containing template blocks containing ucode script expressions or comments.

Block types

There are three kinds of blocks; expression blocks, statement blocks and comment blocks. The former two embed code logic using ucode's JavaScript-like syntax while the latter comment block type is simply discarded during processing.

1. Statement block

Statement blocks are enclosed in an opening {% and a closing %} tag and may contain any number of script code statements, even entire programs.

It is allowed to omit the closing %} of a statement block to parse the entire remaining source text after the opening tag as ucode script.

By default, statement blocks produce no output and the entire block is reduced to an empty string during template evaluation but contained script code might invoke functions such as print() to explicitly output contents.

For example the following template would result in The epoch is odd or The epoch is even, depending on the current epoch value:

The epoch is {% if (time() % 2): %}odd{% else %}even{% endif %}!

2. Expression block

Expression blocks are enclosed in an opening {{ and a closing }} tag and may only contain a single expression statement (multiple expressions may be chained with comma). The implicit result of the rightmost evaluated expression is used as output when processing the block.

For example the template Hello world, {{ getenv("USER") }}! would result in the output "Hello world, user!" where user would correspond to the name of the current user executing the ucode interpreter.

3. Comment block

Comment blocks, which are denoted with an opening {# and a closing #} tag may contain arbitrary text except the closing #} tag itself. Comments blocks are completely stripped during processing and are replaced with an empty string.

The following example template would result in the output "Hello world":

Hello {# mad #}word

Whitespace handling

Each block start tag may be suffixed with a dash to strip any whitespace before the block and likewise any block end tag may be prefixed with a dash to strip any whitespace following the block.

Without using whitespace stripping, the following example:

This is a first line
{% for (x in [1, 2, 3]): %}
This is item {{ x }}.
{% endfor %}
This is the last line

Would result in the following output:

This is a first line

This is item 1.
This is item 2.
This is item 3.

This is the last line

By adding a trailing dash to apply whitespace stripping after the block, the empty lines can be eliminated:

This is a first line
{% for (x in [1, 2, 3]): -%}
This is item {{ x }}.
{% endfor -%}
This is the last line

Output:

This is a first line
This is item 1.
This is item 2.
This is item 3.
This is the last line

By applying whitespace stripping before the block, all lines can be joined into a single output line:

This is a first line
{%- for (x in [1, 2, 3]): -%}
This is item {{ x }}.
{%- endfor -%}
This is the last line

Output:

This is a first lineThis is item 1.This is item 2.This is item 3.This is the last line

Script syntax

The ucode script language - used either within statement and expression blocks or throughout the entire file in raw mode, uses untyped variables and employs a simplified JavaScript like syntax.

The language implements function scoping and differentiates between local and global variables. Each function has its own private scope while executing and local variables declared inside a function are not accessible in the outer calling scope.

1. Data types

Ucode supports seven different basic types as well as two additional special types; function values and ressource values. The supported types are:

• Boolean values (true or false)
• Integer values (-9223372036854775808 to +9223372036854775807)
• Double values (-1.7e308 to +1.7e308)
• String values (e.g. 'Hello world!' or "Sunshine \u2600!")
• Array values (e.g. [1, false, "foo"])
• Object values (e.g. { foo: true, "bar": 123 })
• Null value (null)

Ucode utilizes reference counting to manage memory used for variables and values and frees data automatically as soon as values go out of scope.

Numeric values are either stored as signed 64bit integers or as IEEE 756 double value. Conversion between integer and double values can happen implicitly, e.g. through numeric operations, or explicitely, e.g. by invoking functions such as int().

2. Variables

Variable names must start with a letter or an underscore and may only contain the characters A..Z, a..z, 0..9 or _. By prefixing a variable name with the keyword let, it is declared in the local block scope only and not visible outside anymore.

Variables may also be declared using the const keyword. Such variables follow the same scoping rules as let declared ones but they cannot be modified after they have been declared. Any attempt to do so will result in a syntax error during compilation.

{%

  a = 1;  // global variable assignment

  function test() {
    let b = 2;  // declare `b` as local variable
    a = 2;        // overwrite global a
  }

  test();

  print(a, "\n");  // outputs "2"
  print(b, "\n");  // outputs nothing

  const c = 3;
  print(c, "\n");  // outputs "3"

  c = 4;           // raises syntax error
  c++;             // raises syntax error

  const d;         // raises syntax error, const variables must
                   // be initialized at declaration time

%}

3. Control statements

Similar to JavaScript, ucode supports if, for and while statements to control execution flow.

3.1. Conditional statement

If/else blocks can be used to execute statements depending on a condition.

{%

  user = getenv("USER");

  if (user == "alice") {
      print("Hello Alice!\n");
  }
  else if (user == "bob") {
      print("Hello Bob!\n");
  }
  else {
      print("Hello guest!\n");
  }

%}

If only a single statement is wrapped by an if or else branch, the enclosing curly braces may be omitted:

{%

  if (rand() == 3)
      print("This is quite unlikely\n");

%}

3.2. Loop statements

Ucode script supports three different flavors of loop control statements; a while loop that executes enclosed statements as long as the loop condition is fulfilled, a for in loop that iterates keys of objects or items of arrays and a counting for loop that is a variation of the while loop.

{%

  i = 0;
  arr = [1, 2, 3];
  obj = { Alice: 32, Bob: 54 };

  // execute as long as condition is true
  while (i < length(arr)) {
      print(arr[i], "\n");
      i++;
  }

  // execute for each item in arr
  for (n in arr) {
      print(n, "\n");
  }

  // execute for each key in obj
  for (person in obj) {
      print(person, " is ", obj[person], " years old.\n");
  }

  // execute initialization statement (j = 0) once
  // execute as long as condition (j < length(arr)) is true
  // execute step statement (j++) after each iteration
  for (j = 0; j < length(arr); j++) {
      print(arr[j], "\n");
  }

%}

3.3. Alternative syntax

Since conditional statements and loops are often used for template formatting purposes, e.g. to repeat a specific markup for each item of a list, ucode supports an alternative syntax that does not require curly braces to group statements but that uses explicit end keywords to denote the end of the control statement body for better readability instead.

The following two examples first illustrate the normal syntax, followed by the alternative syntax that is more suitable for statement blocks:

Printing a list:
{% for (n in [1, 2, 3]) { -%}
  - Item #{{ n }}
{% } %}

The alternative syntax replaces the opening curly brace ({) with a colon (:) and the closing curly brace (}) with an explicit endfor keyword:

Printing a list:
{% for (n in [1, 2, 3]): -%}
  - Item #{{ n }}
{% endfor %}

For each control statement type, a corresponding alternative end keyword is defined:

• if (...): ... endif
• for (...): ... endfor
• while (...): ... endwhile

4. Functions

Ucode scripts may define functions to group repeating operations into reusable operations. Functions can be both declared with a name, in which case they're automatically registered in the current scope, or anonymously which allows assigning the resulting value to a variable, e.g. to build arrays or objects of functions:

{%

  function duplicate(n) {
       return n * 2;
  }

  let utilities = {
      concat: function(a, b) {
          return "" + a + b;
      },
      greeting: function() {
          return "Hello, " + getenv("USER") + "!";
      }
  };

-%}

The duplicate of 2 is {{ duplicate(2) }}.
The concatenation of 'abc' and 123 is {{ utilities.concat("abc", 123) }}.
Your personal greeting is: {{ utilities.greeting() }}.

4.1. Alternative syntax

Function declarations support the same kind of alternative syntax as defined for control statements (3.3.)

The alternative syntax replaces the opening curly brace ({) with a colon (:) and the closing curly brace (}) with an explicit endfunction keyword:

{% function printgreeting(name): -%}
  Hallo {{ name }}, nice to meet you.
{% endfunction -%}

<h1>{{ printgreeting("Alice") }}</h1>

5. Operators

Similar to JavaScript and C, ucode scripts support a range of different operators to manipulate values and variables.

5.1. Arithmetic operations

The operators +, -, *, /, %, ++ and -- allow to perform additions, substractions, multiplications, divisions, modulo, increment or decrement operations respectively where the result depends on the type of involved values.

The ++ and -- operators are unary, means that they only apply to one operand. The + and - operators may be used in unary context to either convert a given value to a numeric value or to negate a given value.

If either operand of the + operator is a string, the other one is converted to a string value as well and a concatenated string is returned.

All other arithmetic operators coerce their operands into numeric values. Fractional values are converted to doubles, other numeric values to integers.

If either operand is a double, the other one is converted to a double value as well and a double result is returned.

Divisions by zero result in the special double value Infinity. If an operand cannot be converted to a numeric value, the result of the operation is the special double value NaN.

{%
  a = 2;
  b = 5.2;
  s1 = "125";
  s2 = "Hello world";

  print(+s1);      // 125
  print(+s2);      // NaN
  print(-s1);      // -125
  print(-s2);      // NaN
  print(-a);       // -2

  print(a++);      // 2 (Return value of a, then increment by 1)
  print(++a);      // 4 (Increment by 1, then return value of a)

  print(b--);      // 5.2 (Return value of b, then decrement by 1)
  print(--b);      // 3.2 (Decrement by 1, then return value of b)

  print(4 + 8);    // 12
  print(7 - 4);    // 3
  print(3 * 3);    // 9

  print(10 / 4);   // 2 (Integer division)
  print(10 / 4.0); // 2.5 (Double division)
  print(10 / 0);   // Infinity

  print(10 % 7);   // 3
  print(10 % 7.0); // NaN (Modulo is undefined for non-integers)
%}

5.2. Bitwise operations

The operators &, |, ^, <<, >> and ~ allow to perform bitwise and, or, xor, left shift, right shift and complement operations respectively.

The ~ operator is unary, means that is only applies to one operand.

{%
  print(0 & 0, 0 & 1, 1 & 1);  // 001
  print(0 | 0, 0 | 1, 1 | 1);  // 011
  print(0 ^ 0, 0 ^ 1, 1 ^ 1);  // 010
  print(10 << 2);              // 40
  print(10 >> 2);              // 2
  print(~15);                  // -16 (0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF0)
%}

An important property of bitwise operators is that they're coercing their operand values to whole integers:

{%
  print(12.34 >> 0);   // 12
  print(~(~12.34));    // 12
%}

5.3. Relational operations

The operators ==, !=, <, <=, > and >= test whether their operands are equal, inequal, lower than, lower than/equal to, higher than or higher than/equal to each other respectively.

If both operands are strings, their respective byte values are compared, if both are objects or arrays, their underlying memory addresses are compared.

In all other cases, both operands are coerced into numeric values and the resulting values are compared with each other.

This means that comparing values of different types will coerce them both to numbers.

The result of the relational operation is a boolean indicating truishness.

{%
  print(123 == 123);     // true
  print(123 == "123");   // true!
  print(123 < 456);      // true
  print(123 > 456);      // false
  print(123 != 456);     // true
  print(123 != "123");   // false!
  print({} == {});       // false (two different anonymous objects)
  a = {}; print(a == a); // true (same object)
%}

5.4. Logical operations

The operators &&, ||, ?? and ! test whether their operands are all true, partially true, null or false respectively.

In the case of && the rightmost value is returned while || results in the first truish and ?? in the first non-null value.

The unary ! operator will result in true if the operand is not trueish, otherwise it will result in false.

Operands are evaluated from left to right while testing truishness, which means that expressions with side effects, such as function calls, are only executed if the preceeding condition was satisifed.

{%
  print(1 && 2 && 3);                 // 3
  print(1 || 2 || 3);                 // 1
  print(2 > 1 && 3 < 4);              // true
  print(doesnotexist ?? null ?? 42);  // 42
  print(1 ?? 2 ?? 3);                 // 1
  print(!false);                      // true
  print(!true);                       // false

  res = test1() && test2();  // test2() is only called if test1() returns true
%}

5.5. Assignment operations

In addition to the basic assignment operator =, most other operators have a corresponding shortcut assignment operator which reads the specified variable, applies the operation and operand to it, and writes it back.

The result of assignment expressions is the assigned value.

{%
  a = 1;     // assign 1 to variable a
  a += 2;    // a = a + 2;
  a -= 3;    // a = a - 3;
  a *= 4;    // a = a * 4;
  a /= 5;    // a = a / 5;
  a %= 6;    // a = a % 6;
  a &= 7;    // a = a & 7;
  a |= 8;    // a = a | 8;
  a ^= 9;    // a = a ^ 9;
  a <<= 10;  // a = a << 10;
  a >>= 11;  // a = a >> 11;
  a &&= 12;  // a = a && 12;
  a ||= 13;  // a = a || 13;
  a ??= 14;  // a = a ?? 14;

  print(a = 2);  // 2
%}

5.6. Miscellaneous operators

Besides the operators described so far, ucode script also supports a delete operator which removes a property from an object value.

{%
  a = { test: true };

  delete a.test;         // true
  delete a.notexisting;  // false

  print(a);              // { }
%}

5.7. Precedence

Operator precedence determines the order in which operators are evaluated in an expression. In ucode, operators have different precedence levels, as outline in the table below.

Operators with a higher precedence value are evaluated before operators with a lower precedence value. When operators have the same precedence, their associativity determines the order of evaluation (e.g., left-to-right or right-to-left).