Quick Start

Write, compile, and run your first Visuall program in under 5 minutes.

1. Download Visuall

Go to the Releases page and download the prebuilt binary for your platform.

Windows (recommended): Download the visuallc-v*-installer.exe installer. It extracts everything to C:\Program Files\visuall\, adds the folder to your PATH, and registers in Add/Remove Programs. After install, visuallc works from any terminal. You also need MinGW-W64 for the C linker.

Windows (manual): Download visuall-v1.3.2-windows-x86_64.zip, extract to C:\visuall\, and add the folder to your PATH manually.

Linux: Download visuallc-linux-x86_64.tar.gz, extract with tar -xzf visuallc-linux-x86_64.tar.gz. Install gcc via your package manager.

2. Write a program

Create a file called hello.vsl: 

print("Hello, Visuall!")

define greet(name: str, age: int) -> str:
    return f"Hello {name}, you are {age} years old"

message = greet("Developer", 1)
print(message)

## Data structures
numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
squares = [x * x for x in numbers if x % 2 == 0]
print(f"Squares of evens: {squares}")

3. Compile

Open a terminal in the directory containing hello.vsl:

# Windows
.\visuallc.exe hello.vsl -o hello

# Linux
./visuallc hello.vsl -o hello

4. Run

# Windows
.\hello.exe

# Linux
./hello

Output: 

Hello, Visuall!
Hello Developer, you are 1 years old
Squares of evens: [4, 16]

5. Cross-Compile (optional)

Visuall supports cross-compilation to any LLVM target. Use --target with a target triple: 

# Compile for ARM64 Linux from an x86-64 host
./visuallc hello.vsl -o hello --target aarch64-linux-gnu

# With CPU tuning and explicit linker
./visuallc hello.vsl -o hello --target aarch64-linux-gnu \
    --cpu cortex-a72 --linker-prefix aarch64-linux-gnu-

See Tooling Reference for all cross-compilation flags.

Next Steps