Claro/README.md

Claro v1.18.26

Claro is a small, readable scripting language designed to help beginners — especially learners with learning disabilities — learn programming without being overwhelmed by punctuation-heavy syntax.

Claro stays plain-text first: simple enough to start with SET name "Jon", but able to grow into stronger typed scripts, objects, packages, networking, and tooling over the v1 line. Graphics/SDL work is experimental and not enabled in the stable executable.

Status

Current release: Claro v1.18.26

Validated in this package:

./claro --version
# Claro v1.18.26

./claro test
# PASS: 0 failure(s)

./claro validate
# Validation passed. Claro v1.18.26 networking reliability is ready for use.

Beginner-first syntax

Claro accepts both the sentence-like style and the shorter simple style:

SET name TO "Jon"
SET name "Jon"
SET city to "Edmonton"

ASK "What is your name?" name
SAY "Hello " + name

IF name = "Jon"
    SAY "Nice name!"
END

Older forms such as ASK "Name?" AS name, ENDIF, DONE, and LEARNED still work so older Claro examples do not break.

Simple functions

TEACH greet name
    SAY "Hello " + name
END

DO greet "Jon"

Older function syntax still works:

TEACH greet TAKES name
    SAY "Hello " + name
LEARNED

CALL greet WITH "Jon"

Objects and classes

Classes can have typed fields and simple methods.

CLASS Player
    HAS name TEXT
    HAS score NUMBER

    TEACH show
        SAY name
        SAY score
    END

    TEACH add points
        SET score score + points
    END
END

NEW Player player
SET player.name "Jon"
SET player.score 10

DO player.show
DO player.add 5
SAY player.score

Object helper commands:

OBJECT CLASS player AS kind
OBJECT FIELDS player AS fields

Static type safety

Beginners can still write the simplest form:

SET name "Jon"

When learners are ready, Claro can protect variables with plain-text types:

SET score NUMBER 10
SET name TEXT "Jon"
SET ready YESNO YES

TYPE OF score AS kind
SAY kind

CHECK TYPE score IS NUMBER

Advanced container checks are available through claro typecheck:

SET names AS LIST OF TEXT TO LIST
ADD "Ada" TO names

SET scores AS MAP OF NUMBER TO MAP
PUT scores KEY "math" VALUE 98

claro typecheck also has an early function-argument diagnostic foundation. A function can state a parameter expectation with CHECK TYPE, and calls with the wrong value type get a friendly error:

TEACH square amount
    CHECK TYPE amount IS NUMBER
    SAY amount
END

DO square "oops"

Type mismatch for function square: parameter amount needs NUMBER, but this argument looks like TEXT.

For functions with more than one checked parameter, Claro reports each mismatched argument with the parameter name:

TEACH label TAKES name, age
    CHECK TYPE name IS TEXT
    CHECK TYPE age IS NUMBER
END

CALL label WITH 7, "old"

The same narrow diagnostic foundation now covers simple object method calls when the object was created with NEW and the method body uses CHECK TYPE for a parameter. Correct calls such as DO player.add 5 are covered by validation, and wrong-type calls get a focused learner-facing error:

CLASS Player
    HAS score NUMBER

    TEACH add points
        CHECK TYPE points IS NUMBER
        SET score score + points
    END
END

NEW Player player
DO player.add "five"

Type mismatch for method Player.add: parameter points needs NUMBER, but this argument looks like TEXT.

For simple object fields created with NEW Class name, claro typecheck also catches direct wrong-type field assignments such as SET player.score "ten" when the class says HAS score NUMBER:

Type mismatch for field player.score: expected NUMBER, but this value looks like TEXT.

It also catches direct assignments to undeclared fields and suggests the matching HAS line:

Object Player has no field level. Check the field name or add HAS level NUMBER to the class.

TEXT-valued and YESNO-valued field-name mistakes are validated too:

Object Player has no field nickname. Check the field name or add HAS nickname TEXT to the class.
Object Player has no field ready. Check the field name or add HAS ready YESNO to the class.

Project and package workflow

v1.18.26 hardens Claro's project/package workflow.

Create a starter project:

claro new MyProject
cd MyProject
claro run

Manage packages:

claro package init
claro package add text
claro package list
claro package remove text
claro package doctor
claro package lock

Claro now creates and maintains:

claro.project
claro.lock
packages/

Package names are checked so unsafe names such as ../bad are rejected.

Networking

v1.18.26 adds safer beginner networking commands with offline claro:// test URLs.

HTTP CHECK "claro://hello" AS safe
SAY safe

HTTP GET "claro://hello" AS page STATUS status
SAY page
SAY status

HTTP SAVE "claro://json" TO "network_demo.json" AS saveStatus
SAY saveStatus

The latest HTTP status is also stored in LASTHTTP. Real http:// and https:// requests use curl when available, while claro:// works offline for lessons and tests.

Useful commands

claro help
claro --version
claro test
claro validate
claro doctor
claro examples
claro check examples/quiz.claro
claro typecheck examples/type_hardening.claro
claro fmt examples/quiz.claro
claro repl
claro new MyProject
claro run
claro package init
claro package add text
claro package list
claro package doctor
claro ide

Good first scripts

./claro lessons/01_hello.claro
./claro examples/quiz.claro
./claro examples/simple_functions.claro
./claro examples/objects_classes.claro
./claro examples/text_polish.claro
./claro examples/networking.claro

Documentation map

If you are new to Claro, start here:

1. docs/QUICK_START.md
2. docs/FIRST_HOUR.md
3. lessons/README.md
4. docs/CLI.md
5. docs/CURRENT_STATUS.md

Feature references by current status:

• Ready for beginner lessons: language reference (docs/SPEC.md), friendly errors/checking (docs/ERRORS.md, docs/LINTER.md, docs/TESTING.md), formatter (docs/FORMATTER.md), and simple functions (docs/SIMPLE_FUNCTIONS.md).
• Foundation present, still being polished: static typing (docs/ADVANCED_STATIC_TYPING.md), objects/classes (docs/V1_15_OBJECTS_CLASSES.md), local projects/packages (docs/V1_16_PACKAGES_PROJECTS.md), HTTP client networking (docs/V1_17_NETWORKING.md), cooperative tasks (docs/CONCURRENCY.md), and IDE metadata/helper support (docs/IDE.md).
• Planned or experimental, not stable beginner features yet: remote package registry (docs/PACKAGE_REGISTRY.md), web server API (docs/WEB_SERVER_PLAN.md), full editor extension/LSP (docs/EDITOR_EXTENSION_PLAN.md), and real SDL graphics (docs/GRAPHICS.md, docs/SDL12.md).
• Roadmaps: docs/ROADMAP.md for the current v1 direction and docs/COMPLETE_PLATFORM_ROADMAP.md for the larger platform goal.

Historical release notes and validation logs are kept in files such as docs/RC*_NOTES.md, docs/RC*_VALIDATION.md, and older docs/V1_*_VALIDATION.md. They are useful for project history, but they are not the beginner starting path.

Release direction

Claro should remain in the v1.xx.yy line for normal development. A future Claro v2 should mean a full rewrite years later, not an ordinary feature update.