Getting started

A Lyric program is a file with the extension .lyr. Execution begins at main.

import std.io.console { println };

fn main(): int {
    println("Hello, Lyric!");
    return 0;
}

Run it:

lyric run hello.lyr

The return value of main becomes the process exit code, masked with & 0xFF.

The tools

In a project — a directory with a lyric.json, which lyric new writes — the same verbs take no file at all: lyric run, lyric build, lyric check, lyric test and lyric pack answer for the project. Chapter 16 is about that.

A compile is the debug profile unless you say --release: every frame kept, every name kept, the shape a backtrace and a debugger read honestly. Chapter 16 has the table.

lyric check goes as far as the intermediate representation, so a construct the code generator cannot lower is reported there rather than at the build. It stops before the bytes: a module can pass everything above and still be one the loader refuses. lyric check <file> --emit runs that last step too — the bytes are produced, loaded and dropped, and no file is written. It is the answer for a project that compiles each of its files on its own and wants to know they will all load.

Arguments

To receive command-line arguments, declare main with one parameter of type string[]:

import std.io.console { println };

fn main(args: string[]): int {
    println(f"got {args.length} argument(s)");
    return 0;
}

Everything after -- on the command line belongs to the program:

lyric run wc.lyr -- README.md