Designed by Nicolas Cannasse | Typing discipline Dynamic | |
Paradigm Object-oriented, structured, prototype-based, scripting Developer Motion Twin, Shiro Games First appeared 2005; 12 years ago (2005) Stable release 2.1 / May 8, 2016; 10 months ago (2016-05-08) | ||
Neko is a high-level dynamically typed programming language developed by Nicolas Cannasse as part of research and development (R&D) efforts at two indie video game firms in Bordeaux, France: first at Motion Twin and then at Shiro Games.
Contents
Concept
Neko has a compiler and a virtual machine (VM) with garbage collection. The compiler converts a source .neko file into a bytecode .n file that can be executed with the VM. Since Neko is dynamically typed with no fixed classes, a developer only need find the proper runtime mapping (in contrast to type mapping) so that code executes correctly. As the Neko FAQ puts it: "...it is easier to write a new or existing language on the NekoVM than it is for the CLR / JVM, since you don’t have to deal with a highlevel type system. Also, this means that languages can interoperate more easily since they only need to share the same data structures and not always the same types."
Neko requires compiling before executing, like other scripting languages such as Apache Groovy. Since Neko need not be interpreted at runtime, it executes faster. The Haxe programming language compiles to Neko code, among other targets.
Virtual machine
The Neko virtual machine is used to execute a Neko bytecode file, the VM also has the option to convert a bytecode file into an executable file (output changes depending on the target operating system).
Web functionality
Neko includes a mod_neko module for the Apache server. As such, it can process user input using GET and POST requests: