Var'aq

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The correct title of this article is var'aq. The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.

var'aq is a programming language based loosely upon the grammatical structure of the Klingon language. It was created as part of a speculative exercise in imagining what the computer culture of the fictional Klingon race might be like, and was created by Brian Connors and Chris Pressey c. 2000.

The language is a stack-based language based loosely on PostScript, with aspects of the Lisp language added for handling data structures.

The following keywords are currently supported:

Control Structures

ifyes/HIja'chugh
ifno/ghobe'chugh
choose/wIv
~ (quote/lI'moH)
name/pong
set/cher
repeat/vangqa'
eval/chov

Stack Operations

pop/woD
dup/latlh
exch/tam
clear/chImmoH
remember/qaw
forget/qawHa'

Arithmetic Operators

add/boq
sub/boqHa'
mul/boq'egh
div/boqHa'egh
mod/chuv
pow/law'qa'moH
rand/mIS
add1/wa'boq
sub1/wa'boqHa'
pi/HeHmI'
e/ghurmi'
clip/poD
smooth/Hab
howmuch/'ar

Trig/Log operators

sin/joq
cos/joqHa'
tan/qojmI'
atan/qojHa'
ln/ghurtaH

Relational Operators

All relational operators have been implemented. Thanks to j proctor for null?/pagh'a', negative?/taH'a', int?/HabmI''a', and number/mI''a'.

I/O Operators

The var'aq I/O model remains to be defined, but the basic console I/O functions are now present.

List Operators

All list operators are now available

String Operators

strtie/tlheghrar
streq?/tlheghrap'a'
strcut/tlhleghpe'
strmeasure/tlheghjuv
compose/naQmoH

tlhIngan Hol has names for the numbers and there are also pIqaD (the Klingon writing system) versions of those numbers:

||pagh|| wa'|| cha'|| wej|| loS|| vagh|| jav|| Soch|| chogh|| Hut|| wa'maH||
||0   || 1  || 2   || 3  || 4  || 5   || 6  || 7   || 8    || 9  || 10    ||

[edit] Sample program

Name: hello, world
Dialect: English
Version: 5 June 2000
Comments: Note the canonical var'aq "hello, world";
          actually prints "What do you want, universe?" in Klingon

~ nuqneH { ~ 'u' ~ nuqneH disp disp } name
nuqneH