Explore Wenyan: The Ancient Chinese Syntax Language You Can Compile to JavaScript

Wenyan: An Ancient Chinese Syntax Programming Language

Recently the Wenyan language project has gained popularity on GitHub, reaching over ten thousand stars. It allows developers to write programs using Classical Chinese characters, which can be compiled to JavaScript or Python.

Hello World in Wenyan

吾有一數。曰三。名之曰「甲」。
為是「甲」遍。
    吾有一言。曰「「問天地好在。」」。書之。
云云。

Compiled to JavaScript:

var n = 3;
for (var i = 0; i < n; i++) {
    console.log("問天地好在。");
}

Running the program prints the phrase three times.

Prime Numbers Example (Sieve of Eratosthenes)

The following Wenyan code implements the sieve algorithm for numbers up to 100.

var 埃氏篩 = () => 0;
埃氏篩 = function(甲) {
    var 掩 = [];
    for (var _rand1 = 0; _rand1 < 甲; _rand1++) {
        掩.push(true);
    };
    var _ans1 = 甲 / 2;
    var 甲半 = _ans1;
    var 戊 = 2;
    while (true) {
        if (戊 == 甲半) { break; };
        var 戌 = 2;
        while (true) {
            if (戌 == 甲半) { break; };
            var _ans2 = 戊 * 戌;
            var 合 = _ans2;
            if (合 <= 甲) {
                掩[合 - 1] = false;
            } else { break; };
            var _ans3 = 1 + 戌;
            戌 = _ans3;
        };
        var _ans4 = 1 + 戊;
        戊 = _ans4;
    };
    var 諸素 = [];
    var 戊 = 2;
    while (true) {
        if (戊 == 掩.length) { break; };
        var _ans5 = 掩[戊 - 1];
        var 素耶 = _ans5;
        if (素耶) { 諸素.push(戊); };
        var _ans6 = 1 + 戊;
        戊 = _ans6;
    };
    return 諸素
};
var _ans7 = 埃氏篩(100);
console.log(_ans7);

Running the program outputs the list of prime numbers below 100:

2,3,5,7,11,13,17,19,23,29,31,37,41,43,47,53,59,61,67,71,73,79,83,89,97

Key Features

Compiles to JavaScript or Python

Turing‑complete

Online IDE and compiler

Open‑source implementation

Installation & Usage

Clone the repository, give the wenyan.js script execution permission, and run it with the desired source file:

git clone https://github.com/LingDong-/wenyan-lang
chmod +x ./build/wenyan.js
./build/wenyan.js examples/helloworld.wy -o helloworld.js

The CLI supports options such as --eval, --exec, --lang, and others (see the usage section).

Resources

Project repository: https://github.com/LingDong-/wenyan-lang

Project homepage: http://wenyan-lang.lingdong.works/

Online IDE: http://wenyan-lang.lingdong.works/ide.html