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« Previous: Home · Guide Index · Next: Syntax Basics »

1. Getting Started

This chapter gets QuantoScript running on your machine and shows you how to execute your first program.

Installing

The quickest route is the one-line installer. It downloads a prebuilt, self-contained binary (no external dependencies), places it under ~/.quanto, and adds it to your PATH.

macOS and Linux

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PySudo/QuantoScript/main/install.sh | sh

Windows (PowerShell)

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PySudo/QuantoScript/main/install.ps1 | iex

Open a new terminal afterwards and confirm the install:

qs version

Prebuilt binaries are provided for macOS (Apple Silicon), Linux (x86-64 and ARM64), and Windows (x86-64). Prefer to build from source? See Building from source below.

Running your first program

Create a file called hello.qs:

print("Hello, World!")

func greet(name) {
    return "Hello, " + name + "!"
}

print(greet("QuantoScript"))

Run it:

qs hello.qs
Hello, World!
Hello, QuantoScript!

You can run the same file on any execution engine with identical results:

qs hello.qs          # tree-walk interpreter (the default)
qs vm hello.qs       # bytecode VM

See Execution Engines for the full picture.

The interactive REPL

Run qs with no arguments to open the read–evaluate–print loop:

$ qs
>>> x = 42
>>> print(x)
42
>>> func add(a, b) { return a + b }
>>> print(add(3, 4))
7
>>> exit

The REPL keeps state between lines and understands multi-line blocks: if a line ends while a { is still open, it keeps reading until the block is closed. Type exit or quit to leave.

A quick map of the CLI

qs <file.qs>          run a script
qs                    open the REPL
qs vm <file.qs>       run on the bytecode VM
qs build <file.qs>    compile to .qvm bytecode
qs check <file.qs>    validate syntax without running
qs help               list every command

The complete command reference is in Command-Line Interface.

Where the runtime keeps its files

QuantoScript resolves standard-library and package imports relative to QUANTO_HOME. Ask where that points:

qs home

Imports can also resolve relative to the running executable or the current working directory, which is why the examples use paths such as from "../stdlib/time.qs" import now.

Building from source

The language is a single-file C99 amalgamation, so the build is small.

# Unix-like systems
make            # produces build/qs
make test       # runs the regression suite

# Windows (PowerShell)
.\build.ps1

The compiled binary lands in build/. Copy it wherever you like, or run make install if the Makefile provides an install target on your platform.

Next steps

You now have a working install. Continue to Syntax Basics to learn how a QuantoScript file is structured, or skim The QuantoScript Guide to find a topic.

« Previous: Home · Guide Index · Next: Syntax Basics »