Introduction

Snail¹ (or more formally, the Strings Numbers Arrays and Inheritance Language), is a dynamically typed, expression-based, object-oriented programming language that is simple enough to be implemented in a one-semester course.

Snail programs consist of a set of classes, each of which encapsulates a collection of member variables and methods that define a data type. Objects are instances of these classes. In snail, every piece of data is an object (that is defined by a class). As suggested by the name of the language, it is possible for one class to inherit the variables and methods of another class, thereby extending the behavior of a given type.

To simplify the language syntax, snail is an expression-based language. Thus, nearly every snail construct is an expression that produces some value (object) when evaluated.

Hello World

class Main : IO {
    main() {
        print_string("Hello, world.\n");
    };
};

More examples of snail programs are available here.

Work in Progress

This documentation (along with the snail language itself) is a current work in progress. Please submit a bug report if you have a question or find a problem.

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