Hello World

The First Program

tip

The code below was compiled and executed on a Linux device. If you don't have a Linux device, you can try using Docker.

First, create a nature source file, which always ends with the .n extension. You can name it anything, but here we'll call it main.n. Create the file and write the following content:

main.n

print('hello world')

Compile

> nature build main.n

Now, you should see an executable file named main in the directory. main is the default name, but you can use the -o parameter to change the output name of the executable, like so: nature build -o hello main.n.

Run

> ./main
hello world

🎉 This is a milestone for you.

A Bit More Complex

As demonstrated in the Fibonacci sequence example on the homepage, first create a file named fib.n and write the following content:

fib.n

import fmt

fn fib(int n):int {
    if n <= 1 {
        return n
    }
    return fib(n - 1) + fib(n - 2)
}

var result = fib(30)
fmt.printf('fib result is %d', result)

Compile and execute

> nature build fib.n && ./main
fib result is 832040

In the example above, we first import the fmt package, which is a library for string formatting and output. Then we declare a function using the fn keyword. The function, named fib, primarily calculates the Fibonacci sequence value at position n.

As this is a strongly typed language, parameter types and return types must be declared. The if keyword is a control flow statement that checks whether a given condition is true, and the return keyword returns the value of the variable n. fib(n - 1) calls the fib function, which is a recursive call.

Outside the function, we again call fib(30) and assign its result to the result variable. If you have experience with C, you'll know that the result variable also needs a type declaration, but in nature, the var keyword allows for type inference.

Finally, the printf method from the fmt package formats the string and outputs it, with %d indicating that result should be formatted as an int.

Conclusion

👍 Through the above two examples, most of the syntax of nature has been demonstrated. By this point, you have basically gotten the hang of nature. Subsequent chapters will mainly introduce some syntactical details.