Control Flow

If Statements are a somewhat basic programming concept that is heavy on logic. Intext uses If Statements similarly to other languages to keep it simple.

RawAST 

{
 "type": "if",
 "condition": {
    "left": 5,
    "operator": ">",
    "right": 3
  },
  "body": [
    {
     "type": "output",
     "value": "Hello World"
    }
  ]
}

This is an If Node in RawAST.

Let’s break it down

  • We start off with the type Super Key define what concept is being used. In the case, it’s an If Statement. To learn more about Super Keys, view the RawText Chapter.
  • The condition key is the introduced with Sub-Keys. This helps ISEC know if it should execute the body. As of v0.7 the condition only takes simple stuff with the operators <,>,<=, etc.
    • The Sub-Key left provides what is the first arg. Which will most likely be a number. This arg will be compared using the operator with the right Sub-Key
    • The Sub-Key operator uses the operators of <, >, <=, >=, and ==. Using these left and right are compared to one another, with the possiblity of the condition being true
    • The Sub-Key right is compared via the operator with left with the possiblity of the overall condition being true or false
  • The body key introduces a list of Sub-Nodes. Each being executed if the condition is true. In the above example, the output of the “Hello World” literal will execute because 5 > 3 is true.

Note

If statements aren’t as likely to be as maintained as other functions or features due to their complexity and safety nets needing to be applied. Due to this, I rarely touch on fixing these, not even with a 10 foot pole.