Justin Fagnani
@justinfagnani.com
2.1K followers 477 following 2.4K posts
Building Zena, a new programming language for Web Assembly: bsky.app/profile/zena-lang.dev Previously at Google. Web maximalist. Web components. WebAssembly. Creator of Lit. Oakland.
![## TypeScript-inspired syntax
Zena's syntax is directly inspired by TypeScript, with familiar expressions,
functions, object literals (records in Zena), classes, type annotations, strings,
template literals, destructuring/spread, enums, imports/exports, and more nearly identical to TypeScript
This familiarity makes Zena code intuitive to read and write for humans and
AI tools alike, with virtually no ramp-up time for syntax.
However, Zena deliberately diverges from JavaScript to avoid historical baggage
and add ergonomic improvements:
- `var` is block scoped, `let` is immuatble.
- Pattern-matching `match` replaces `switch`.
- `if`, `match`, `try`, `throw`, `return`, `continue`, and `break` are
expressions.
- `if/let` and `while/let` allow local declarations, and
along with `for/let`, allow patterns in their conditions.
- Map literals with `{key1 => value1, key2 => value2}` syntax.
- No ternary operator so there's no ambiguity with optional chaining or
nullable type shorthand. Use `if` expressions instead.
- No `++` or `--` operators. Use `+=` and `-=` instead.
- Class accessors are grouped, forcing consistent types.
- Optional chaining doesn't require a `.`: `o?.x`, `o?()`, and `o?[k]` are all valid.
- `as` is used to rename destructured object properties, matching `import`.
This is more clear than `:` and resolves ambiguities with pattern matching.
- No `for-of` loops. `for-in` is the iterator protocol loop.
- `from 'path' import {...};` syntax.
- Semicolons are required.
This syntax evolution helps Zena be pleasant and consistent, while still being easy to adopt.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ec64xv7n5dszeizw56yr6b5h/bafkreicia644aai7u5bjkyy5oqcrcisbvlvhy2mak7detfsszooq3wssqy)
