GiC (Gestalten in Code) Lang

Language reference and help for writing GIC programs.

Comments

Comments are ignored by gic. They are only for annotating code. Write many comments to explain what your code does.

// This is a comment

Semi-colons

Semi-colons are used to separate statements and are required. Always!

print("Dont forget the semicolon ->");

Output

The print function is used to output values to the on screen console.

print("Hi");
//or
print(); // empty print is allowed
// or
print("Hello", "World", "!");
// or
print(1, 3, true, "Yay!");

Primitives values/ data types

Type	Description	Examples
Number	Can be float or integer	`42`, `3.14`, `-10`, `0.5`
Boolean	True or false	`true`, `false`
String	Text in double quotes	`"Hello World"`

Variables Declaration

Variables need to be initialized at declaration.

let x = 1;

Reassignment is allowed.

let x = 1;
let y = "Hi there!";
let z = true;
x = 2;
z = y;

All variables must be created before their usage. Their names start with a letter or an underscore followed by letters, digits or underscores. You can't have a hyphen in a variable name.

Once a variable name is declared, it cannot be declared again. Also not in scopes of blocks [^What is a block?] like repeat, functions or conditionals.

A variable that's declared in the block of a repeat function or conditional is not accessible from outside of this block.

Reserved words cannot be used as variable names. E.g. let is a reserved word and cannot be used as name.

[^What is a block?]: A block is a section of code that is enclosed in curly braces {}.

Reserved words

Word	Description
`let`	Variable declaration
`if`	Conditional statement
`else`	Conditional statement
`repeat`	Loop statement
`print`	Print statement
`func`	Function declaration
`return`	Function return value
`true`	Boolean value
`false`	Boolean value

There are also some built-in functions and constants that cannot be used as variable names.

Constants

These are meant to make life easier.

Constant	Description
`PI`	Pi constant
`WIDTH`	sketch width constant
`HEIGHT`	sketch height constant

Math Functions

These are mathematical functions that can be used to perform calculations.

Math Functions	Description
`sqrt`	Square root function
`sin`	Sine function
`cos`	Cosine function
`radians`	Convert degrees to radians
`degrees`	Convert radians to degrees
`random`	Random float between 0 and 1
`randomSeed`	Set random seed for reproducible outputs
`floor`	Round down to integer
`ceil`	Round up to integer
`round`	Round to nearest integer
`abs`	Absolute value
`min`	Smaller of two values
`max`	Larger of two values
`pow`	Exponentiation

Drawing Functions

These are functions that can be used to draw shapes on the canvas.

Drawing Functions	Description
`fill`	Set fill color for shapes
`noFill`	Disable fill
`stroke`	Set stroke (outline) color
`noStroke`	Disable stroke
`strokeWidth`	Set stroke thickness in pixels
`point`	Draw a solid round point
`line`	Draw line
`rect`	Draw rectangle
`circle`	Draw circle
`ellipse`	Draw ellipse
`triangle`	Draw triangle
`quad`	Draw quadrilateral
`arc`	Draw open arc