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The guide, in human order

This reference is arranged as a course you can dip into, not an alphabetized wall of keywords. Start anywhere; every chapter's code blocks open in the playground with one click.

Foundations

1 · Make something runThe playground, the CLI, first contact, and the two program faces. 2 · Choose a program shapeInteractive console, automation scripts, event-driven GUI, or both. 3 · Learn the nounsNames, literals, variables, types, declarations, and classic suffixes. 4 · Own the storageWhat DIM allocates, scope, lifetime, arrays, objects, and deliberate release. 5 · Work with textJoining, slicing, searching, conversion, fixed fields, bytes, and UTF-8 boundaries. 6 · Calculate meaningOperators, precedence, calls, comparison, logic, and built-in functions. 7 · Give it a plotBranches, loops, selection, labels, and numbered-line code. 8 · Give ideas namesSUBs, FUNCTIONs, scope, and choosing BYREF or BYVAL. 9 · Work in collectionsBounds, resizing, parameters, copy, fill, and zero-copy swap. 10 · Model a worldValue records first; then objects, lifetime, properties, and dispatch. 11 · Talk to the consolePRINT, INPUT, formatting, embedded DATA, random sequences, and time. 12 · Handle trouble honestlyDiagnostics, ERR and ERL, refusal handlers, recovery, and cleanup.

Applications and the outside world

13 · Work with filesMounts, directories, bounded I/O, copy, move, rename, trash, and safe replacement. 14 · Store durable meaningDatabase sessions, snapshots, writes, attachments, artifacts, revisions, and receipts. 15 · Open a windowLifecycle faces, input events, drawing, resizing, and invalidation. 16 · Build an interfaced/Works controls, focus, local events, menus, and explicit damage. 17 · Give it sights and soundsPackage assets, images, fonts, tones, PCM, and honest per-runner lowering. 18 · Make a little worldGX scenes, entities, tilemaps, cameras, collision, animation, and portable game turns. 19 · Reach beyond the machineHTTP, streams, capabilities, partial I/O, security, and offline truth. 20 · Ask the worldThe semantic capability boundary, and the reason it exists. 21 · Move real objectsDeep drag and drop, DOBJ, cross-app negotiation, Trash, and native bridges.

Reuse, migration, and delivery

22 · Share good codeBaked, shared, and project-local libraries with exact dependency identity. 23 · Think like the compilerOptimization, cost, determinism, diagnostics, and conformance. 24 · Outgrow 64 KiBA 512 KiB first target, hidden banking, paged values, and Intent acceleration. 25 · Ship the artifactDBC images, libraries, packages, admission, and cross-platform runs. 26 · Bring a listing forwardCompatibility rules, migration, permanent machine boundaries, and refusals. 27 · Find the spellingStatement, intrinsic, event, operator, storage, and type tables.

The five ideas worth remembering

  1. Line numbers are welcome, not required. Named labels and structured blocks live in the same source.
  2. Untyped numeric names are SINGLE. Use a suffix, AS, or DEFINT A-Z when you mean an integer.
  3. Parameters are BYREF by default. Write BYVAL when the callee should receive a value it cannot use to rebind the caller.
  4. TYPE copies; CLASS shares identity. This one distinction explains most record and object behavior.
  5. Programs express intent, hosts provide capability. That is how one program crosses very different machines.

Ready? Run your first program →