Deor

Deor is a small, highly-procedural, tabbed-block language that transpiles to Rust. It enforces near-book readability, explicit typing, and predictable control flow — with a rust block escape hatch for when you need the full language.

Its goal is a comfier entrance point to Rust: simple syntactical sugar, uniform composition rules, and so little room for debate that when there is debate, you just drop into rust {}.

Inspired by Python's opinionated readability, Go's lightweight base syntax, and Rust's type system.

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Install

Prerequisites: Rust / rustc must be installed.

Unix — one-liner (no clone needed):

curl -sSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nathanphoffman/DeorLang/main/setup/install.sh | sh

Unix — manual (if you prefer to inspect before running):

git clone https://github.com/nathanphoffman/DeorLang
cd DeorLang
bash setup/install.sh

Both options install the deor binary and standard library to ~/.deor/ and patch your .bashrc/.zshrc. Restart your shell (or run . ~/.deor/env) when done.

Windows (PowerShell)

git clone https://github.com/nathanphoffman/DeorLang
cd DeorLang
.\setup\install.ps1

Restart your terminal. The binary is added to your user PATH automatically.

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Working on an existing Deor project

If you cloned a project that already uses Deor and just need the toolchain (the Deor programming language installed).

just install-deor

Or directly:

curl -sSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nathanphoffman/DeorLang/main/setup/install-deor.sh | sh

Windows (PowerShell)

Invoke-Expression (Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nathanphoffman/DeorLang/main/setup/install-deor.ps1" -UseBasicParsing).Content

This installs only the deor binary and sets up your PATH — it does not create or modify any project files.

Then reload your shell so the deor command is available:

. ~/.deor/env

Or restart your terminal.

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Update

Pull the latest transpiler, standard library, and spec docs into an existing project:

Run this from inside your project directory and it will recompile ~/.deor/bin/deor and refresh the lib/ and deor_specification/ files in place:

curl -sSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nathanphoffman/DeorLang/main/setup/update.sh | sh

To target a specific project path instead:

curl -sSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nathanphoffman/DeorLang/main/setup/update.sh | sh -s -- /path/to/your/project

Windows (PowerShell) — run from a clone of the DeorLang repo:

cd DeorLang
.\setup\update.ps1

To target a specific project path instead:

.\setup\update.ps1 C:\path\to\your\project

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Quick start

During install you'll be prompted for a folder to create your starter project in:

Where would you like to create your starter project? (default: /your/current/dir/hello-deor):

Hit enter to accept the default or type a custom path. A main.deor file will be placed there. Once your shell is reloaded, run it:

# Unix / macOS
cd hello-deor
deor main.deor main.rs && rustc main.rs -o main && ./main

# Windows
cd hello-deor
deor main.deor main.rs; rustc main.rs -o main.exe; .\main.exe

You should see:

Hello, world!

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Working on the transpiler

The transpiler is written in Deor itself (self-hosted). Clone the repo, then install the prerequisites:

Tool	Purpose
Rust	Compiling transpiled output
just	Running project commands
Node.js / npm	VS Code extension (optional)

A prebuilt binary lives at output/out so you can run files immediately without rebuilding.

Run a Deor file

just run                          # runs examples/hello.deor
just run file=path/to/file.deor   # runs a specific file

Rebuild the transpiler

just build-transpiler   # transpile transpiler-deor/main.deor -> output/out.rs
just rebuild-binary     # compile output/out.rs -> output/out

Or self-compile and run in one shot:

just run-deor

VS Code extension — syntax highlighting and diagnostics for .deor files:

just install-ext

After installing, reload VS Code (Ctrl+Shift+P → Reload Window).