Simplen

Simplen is a minimalist programming language and educational tool designed to teach programming concepts through a compact syntax and predictable semantics. It aims to be approachable for beginners while providing enough structure for practical scripting tasks.

Design goals include readability, a small feature set, and consistent behavior across environments. The language emphasizes indentation-based blocks, dynamic typing, and a small standard library that covers input/output, strings, lists, and basic math.

Core constructs include variables, functions, conditionals, loops, and simple I/O operations. Keywords are in lowercase, and statements are ended by newlines. The philosophy is to minimize punctuation and boilerplate while keeping clear error messages.

Because simplen is not standardized, multiple implementations exist, each with minor dialect differences. This has made it popular in introductory courses and hobby projects where a gentle ramp into programming is desired.

Typical use cases include teaching basic programming concepts, rapid prototyping of small scripts, and serving as a stepping stone to more feature-rich languages.

Example in simplen:

print "Hello, world!"

func add(a, b) { return a + b }

print(add(3, 4))