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Getting Set Up

Prerequisites​

To start with, clone the Raven repository to your computer. To use Raven you'll need

  • A Julia REPL, to run the compiler,
  • Node.js on your system path, to run compiled code, and
  • WABT and Binaryen, for optimising WebAssembly output.

MacOS​

On MacOS I highly recommend using Homebrew, which makes installation easy:

brew install --cask julia
brew install node wabt binaryen

In a terminal, navigate to the Raven repo and run julia --project to launch the Julia REPL.

tip

Alternatively, if you already have Node.js and would like to avoid Homebrew, you can install WABT and Binaryen with npm install --global wabt binaryen

Linux​

On Linux you need to download the Julia binaries, unzip them, and add the ./bin/julia binary to your PATH.

I recommend using Homebrew for the rest:

brew install node wabt binaryen

In a terminal, navigate to the Raven repo and run julia --project to launch the Julia REPL.

tip

Alternatively, if you already have Node.js and would like to avoid Homebrew, you can install WABT and Binaryen with npm install --global wabt binaryen

caution

The apt package manager does have a nodejs package, but the build is ancient. It's best to have a recent version.

Windows​

On recent versions, the dependencies can be installed using Windows' built-in package manager, in PowerShell.

winget install JuliaLang.Julia
winget install OpenJS.NodeJS

You may need to restart your terminal before installing WABT and Binaryen.

npm install --global wabt binaryen

Then launch a Julia REPL and activate the Raven project.

tip

Raven also works great within WSL, using the Linux instructions above.

Hello, World!​

Create a file called hello.rv with the following contents.

hello.rv
println("Hello, World!")

Now, from a Julia REPL, call the Raven compiler.

julia> using Raven

julia> Raven.exec("hello.rv")
Hello, World!

Editor Support​

Basic syntax highlighting is supported in Atom and VS Code. The instructions should work on MacOS or Linux desktop, but don't support Windows.

Atom​

From a shell in the Raven repo:

ln -s $PWD/editor/language-raven ~/.atom/packages/

VS Code​

From a shell in the Raven repo:

cd editor/raven-language
npm install
npm run compile
ln -s $PWD ~/.vscode/extensions