Language Guide¶

This guide provides a complete reference to the Symbolic programming language. Sections are ordered to build understanding progressively, but each page can be read independently as reference material.

Overview¶

Syntax

Lexical structure: comments, identifiers, keywords, literals, operators, operator precedence, and string interpolation.

Types

The built-in numeric hierarchy (Integer, Float, Fraction, Complex), strings, collections, booleans, and the optional type annotation system.

Functions

Keyword (fn), algebraic, and lambda definition forms; parameters, default values, varargs, keyword-only parameters; closures; contract clauses (requires / ensures); generators; and higher-order patterns.

Control Flow

Conditional expressions and statements; all loop variants (for, while, loop, repeat … until); stop and skip; the ternary and null-coalesce operators.

Pattern Matching

The match expression; literal, type, structural, and wildcard patterns; guard expressions; list and tuple destructuring; view patterns.

Modules

Import syntax, path resolution, wildcard imports, aliasing, grouped imports, and the module system layout.

Async

async fn definitions; await expressions; parallel await with await all; structured concurrency patterns.

Error Handling

try / catch blocks; the try … ?? operator; raise; custom exception types; assert.

Language Characteristics¶

Symbolic is expression-oriented: every construct evaluates to a value. Statements are expressions whose value may be discarded. Semicolons are used to delimit statements but are frequently optional when the statement boundary is unambiguous.

The language is case-sensitive. Identifiers beginning with an underscore are conventional for private bindings; the runtime does not enforce visibility.

Unicode identifiers in the Greek alphabet (α, θ, Δ, etc.) are valid and frequently used in mathematical contexts.

Conventions Used in This Guide¶

Code samples use the symbolic lexer for syntax highlighting. Lines prefixed with # or // are comments; neither is part of the output. Where the output of an expression is shown, it appears in a separate block labeled output:

result = 2 ^ 8

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