Getting started meant cloning the repository, bootstrapping a compiler and
learning a task runner called `x`. That is a contributor's workflow handed to
everyone who wants to try the language.
Installing is now one command:
curl -fsSL https://workshopsoft.pages.workshopsoft.io/ludic/install.sh | sh
install.sh puts a complete toolchain — compiler, CLI, engine runtime, bundled
ludic.* packages, formatter, language server — in ~/.ludic and adds it to PATH.
Prebuilt artifacts are checksum-verified; where a platform has none, or the
release predates this layout, it bootstraps from the compiler's own IR seed with
clang. The docs site publishes the script beside the pages that quote it, so the
page and the script can never come from different releases.
`x` becomes `ludic`, and the surface splits by audience. A user of the language
sees `new`, `run`, `build`, `test`, `add`, `fmt`, `lsp`, `doctor`, `upgrade`;
`ludic new` scaffolds a project that builds and plays as it stands. Everything
the toolchain repo needs moved under `ludic dev` — build, test, reseed,
bootstrap-cfree, docs-gen, release — unchanged apart from the namespace. Those
tasks read arguments one position further along, so dispatch_dev sets a shift
and commands use arg_n()/arg_total() rather than each knowing its own depth.
Release artifacts become complete install roots (bin/ beside runtime/, packages/
and VERSION) rather than bare binaries, which is what the installer unpacks.
`ludic dev test` asserts the whole shape: it stages an install, puts it on PATH
with no LUDIC_HOME, and runs new -> build -> test through it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The generated site had the shape of a product launch page: a near-black navy
ground with mint/coral radial glows, a gradient-clipped headline, a glowing
pill badge, nine emoji feature cards and scroll-reveal animations. None of it
told a reader anything about the language.
It is now typographic and light-first — a warm paper ground, a serif display
face, one ink-blue accent used only where it means something, and rules
instead of floating cards. Colour is reserved for code. Dark mode is the same
design with the ground inverted, defined once as tokens under a single
prefers-color-scheme block.
Structurally:
- base.css holds the tokens and shared chrome; site.css and docs.css hold what
is specific to the landing page and the reference pages. They ship as linked
files rather than being inlined into all 900+ pages, which takes the site
from 16 MB to 5 MB and means a design change no longer needs a regenerate to
be seen.
- api.css was dead — the generator never referenced it, rendering the API index
with item.css — and is gone. docs.css replaces item.css and covers all four
reference page kinds.
- Grids draw their separators as cell borders instead of bleeding a ruled
background through gaps, so a final row with fewer cards than columns stops
cleanly instead of leaving a grey hole. The feature card count is not a
multiple of the column count at any breakpoint.
- Inline code loses its tinted chip; in a language reference, a box behind
every keyword turns a paragraph into confetti.
- Fonts are the platform's own, so the site makes no webfont request.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Repository-cleanup / DX pass folding three tracker items into one coherent
change, verified green end to end (`bin/x test` 49/0, `bin/x selfhost-test`
29/0, `bin/x test-tools` 29/0).
#28 — curate & categorise examples/
- 42 flat entries regrouped into intent-revealing subdirs: games/, rendering/,
ecs/, events/, networking/, lang/, library/ (was lib/).
- chronorift dir-vs-file duplication resolved: the entry file and its import
modules now live together under games/chronorift(.ludic).
- Every path reference updated repo-wide (test runner, editor-tool drivers,
docs/site, design docs).
- New examples/README.md indexes the whole set with run commands.
- Showcase examples without a self-asserting entry (hello, events, net_rt) now
get a compile-only rot guard in `bin/x test`, so nothing here rots silently.
#30 — text-diffable golden baseline
- The 4 binary selfhost/golden/*.ppm blobs are replaced by a single
selfhost/golden/renders.sha256 manifest (SHA-256 per render). Hashes are
byte-identical to the old PPMs, so the baseline is unchanged — only its form.
- game_case now compares framebuffer hashes; a regression shows as a changed
hex line in review, not "binary files differ".
- New `bin/x golden` regenerates the manifest deliberately (review with
`git diff selfhost/golden/renders.sha256`).
#27 — PPM & asset handling
- Headless renders now write build/out.ppm, never the repo root; `x app`,
`x clean`, messaging and .gitignore updated to match. Nothing is written to
the working root any more.
- Redundant local Kenney .zip archives removed (the art ships extracted;
.gitignore already excludes *.zip). CC0 License.txt files retained.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Pipeline diagram stacks vertically with downward arrows on mobile (row on
>=720px) instead of the awkward wrap.
- Tooltip cards now open on CLICK (works on touch too), the card itself is
clickable and opens the symbol's page in a NEW TAB, and an outside click or
Escape closes it. Replaces the hover-only behavior.
- Reference pages get their own nav — Home / API Reference / Source ↗ — instead
of the landing-only Features/Examples/Get started anchors, and now include the
Source link.
- Unify the container width (1120px) across the landing and all reference pages
so the header and content align between them.
- Reword extern/@export FFI docs from "C-ABI" to "native" for consistency with
the site's no-C wording.
Verified in-browser at 375px and 1280px: vertical pipeline, click→card→new-tab,
outside-click close, correct reference nav, aligned container; 158 examples still
compile.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Replace the hardcoded landing page and minimal reference with a generated
documentation site driven by a single source of truth.
- docs/language/**: one file per symbol (93 keywords/types/builtins/namespace
methods/operators/annotations), each with front-matter (id, kind, tokens,
sig, tip) + description + a ```ludic example. Seeded by exploding the former
inline SECTIONS list; these files are now the source of truth.
- docs/site/: site.json (editable hero/features/showcase/messaging, not
hardcoded) + snippets/*.ludic (real programs shown on the landing page).
- tools/docgen/gen.py: generates index.html, api.html, ludic-highlight.js and
symbols.json. The highlighter's symbol tables, hover tips and jump anchors
are GENERATED from the per-symbol files — add a symbol and it is recognized,
tipped and linked in every snippet automatically. Python stdlib only.
- tools/docgen/check.py: verifies the pages contract + that no snippet token
links to a missing reference anchor.
- .forgejo/workflows/docs.yml: rebuilds and publishes to the pages branch on
every push to main touching the docs sources.
Consumes the new Screen.*/Color.*/named-arg API and the 221-color palette.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
