Shrimp Language

Overview

Shrimp is a shell-like scripting language that combines the simplicity of command-line interfaces with functional programming concepts. Built using Lezer (CodeMirror's parser system) with TypeScript.

Use it

Go to http://localhost:3000 to try out the playground.

echo "Hello, world!"
tail log.txt lines=50

name = "Shrimp"
greet = fn person: echo "Hello" person

result = tail log.txt lines=10

Language Design Philosophy

• Shell-like command syntax - echo hello world works naturally
• Everything is an expression - Commands, assignments, and functions all return values
• Whitespace matters in binary operations - Spaces distinguish operators from identifiers (e.g., x-1 is an identifier, x - 1 is subtraction)
• Unbound symbols become strings - echo hello treats hello as a string if not defined
• Simplicity over cleverness - Each feature should work one way, consistently. Two simple features that are easy to explain beat one complex feature that requires lots of explanation

Parser Features

• ✅ Distinguishes identifiers from words to enable shell-like syntax - paths like ./file.txt work without quotes
• ✅ Smart tokenization for named args (lines=30 splits, but ./path=value stays together)
• ✅ Handles ambiguous cases (bare identifier could be function call or variable reference)

Architecture

parser/ - Lezer grammar and tokenizers that parse Shrimp code into syntax trees editor/ - CodeMirror integration with syntax highlighting and language support
compiler/ - Transforms syntax trees into ReefVM bytecode for execution

The flow: Shrimp source → parser (CST) → compiler (bytecode) → ReefVM (execution)

See example.shrimp for language examples and src/parser/shrimp.grammar for the full grammar.