Ling — The Omniglot Systems Language

Write in your language. Run everywhere.

Ling is a polyglot scripting and systems language whose keywords and builtins are available in 16+ human languages simultaneously — Chinese, Thai, Korean, Japanese, English, Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, and more — in the same source file, with no #lang pragmas or context switches.

Quick Start

cargo install ling-lang
ling run examples/hello.ling

Or from source:

git clone https://github.com/taellinglin/ling
cd ling
cargo run --bin ling -- run examples/hello.ling

Hello World in four lexicons

# Chinese
令 启 = 执 { 印("你好世界") }

# Thai
令 เริ่ม = ดำเนินการ { พิมพ์("สวัสดีโลก") }

# English
bind start = do { print("Hello, World!") }

# Korean
바인드 시작 = 수행 { 인쇄("안녕하세요") }

All four are valid in a single .ling file.

Language Overview

Core syntax

Values

令 x = 42
令 s = "hello"
令 b = true
令 lst = list_new()
令 lst = list_push(lst, 1)

Functions

函 add(a, b) {
    返 a + b
}

令 结果 = add(3, 4)

Control flow

若 x > 10 {
    印("large")
} 否则 {
    印("small")
}

令 i = 0
循 i < 5 {
    印(i)
    令 i = i + 1
}

3D/Visual Builtins

Ling has a built-in software renderer for interactive 3D rooms and visualisations. All drawing builtins are multilingual (Thai names shown alongside English).

Window & camera

เปิดหน้าต่างเต็มจอ("My Room")   # open fullscreen window
set_camera(cry, sry, crx, srx)   # orient camera
set_camera_pos(x, y, z)
set_zdist(2.0)
set_ambient(0.1)
แสดงผล()                         # flush depth queue → screen

Vector geometry (vtex_*)

All vtex calls draw line-based 3D geometry on a plane defined by centre + two tangent vectors. They are fast (no pixel fills) and depth-sorted automatically.

# vtex_grid(cx,cy,cz, ux,uy,uz, vx,vy,vz, cols,rows, cw,ch, fr,hue)
vtex_grid(0, -4, 8,  1,0,0,  0,0,1,  12, 8,  1.0, 1.0,  FR, 0.0)

# vtex_rings(cx,cy,cz, ux,uy,uz, vx,vy,vz, n_rings,n_sides, max_r,twist, fr,hue)
vtex_rings(0, 0, 8,  1,0,0,  0,1,0,  4, 32,  2.0, 0.08,  FR, 1.57)

# vtex_spiked_cog(cx,cy,cz, ux,uy,uz, vx,vy,vz, n_teeth,r_body,r_spike,r_hub,n_spokes, fr,hue)
vtex_spiked_cog(0, 0, 8,  1,0,0,  0,1,0,  16, 1.5, 2.0, 0.3, 8,  FR, 1.57)

# vtex_torii(cx,cy,cz, ux,uy,uz, vx,vy,vz, width,height, fr,hue)
vtex_torii(0, 0, 14,  1,0,0,  0,1,0,  6.0, 5.0,  FR, 2.1)

# vtex_pagoda(cx,cy,cz, ux,uy,uz, vx,vy,vz, n_tiers,base_w,tier_h,taper,eave, fr,hue)
vtex_pagoda(0, 0, 14,  1,0,0,  0,1,0,  5, 2.5, 1.0, 0.72, 0.28,  FR, 1.57)

Full vtex reference: docs/src/reference/vtex.md

Procedural pixel textures (tex_*)

tex_noise(x, y, w, h,  scale, octaves, seed, "psychedelic")
tex_julia(x, y, w, h,  c_re, c_im, max_iter, "neon")
tex_mandelbrot(x, y, w, h,  zoom, cx, cy, max_iter, "fire")
tex_voronoi(x, y, w, h,  cells, seed, "ocean")
tex_freq_map(x, y, w, h,  time, speed, "rainbow")   # audio-reactive

Full tex reference: docs/src/reference/tex.md

Audio

# 4D spatial tone synthesis
audio_tone(slot, x, y, z, w, freq_hz, amp, lfo_rate, lfo_depth)
audio_volume(0.5)

# FFT analysis
fft_push(samples_list)
令 bands = fft_bands(32)   # returns list of 32 magnitudes

Workspace Crates

Crate	crates.io	Purpose
ling-core		Core types and errors
ling-lex		Polyglot tokenizer
ling-ast		AST types
ling-mir		Mid-level IR
ling-codegen		Code generation
ling-runtime		GC and stdlib
ling-audio		4D spatial audio + FFT
ling-graphics		3D/4D rendering
ling-game		ECS + physics
ling-crypto		Hashing, encryption
ling-net		Async networking
ling-ai		Neural networks / LLM
ling-py		Python bindings
ling-wasm		WebGL2 WASM target

Project Structure

ling/
├── src/                  # Main interpreter + renderer
│   ├── runtime/mod.rs    # Builtins, eval loop
│   ├── gfx/vtex.rs       # Vector texture primitives
│   └── parser/           # Lexer + grammar
├── crates/               # Library workspace members
│   ├── ling-audio/       # FFT + synthesis
│   ├── ling-game/        # ECS, mesh, physics
│   └── ...
├── examples/             # .ling demo rooms
│   ├── ling-dao-chamber.ling   # Chinese shrine
│   ├── Garden.ling
│   └── ...
├── lexicons/             # Language definition files
│   ├── th.ling           # Thai
│   ├── zh.ling           # Chinese
│   └── ...
└── docs/                 # mdBook documentation
    ├── book.toml
    └── src/
        ├── SUMMARY.md
        ├── index.md
        └── reference/

Building

# Debug build
cargo build

# Release binary
cargo build --release

# Run a room
cargo run --bin ling -- run examples/ling-dao-chamber.ling

# Build docs (requires mdbook)
cargo install mdbook
mdbook build docs/
mdbook serve docs/

Documentation

• Online reference: docs.rs/ling-lang
• mdBook guide: taellinglin.github.io/ling (auto-built from docs/)
• Builtin reference (multilingual): docs/src/reference/builtins.md

License

Licensed under either of Apache License 2.0 or MIT license at your option.