Pawn is a simple, typeless, 32-bit extension language with a C-like syntax

Summary

pawn An embedded scripting language pawn is a typeless extension language with a C-like syntax. A pawn “source” program is compiled for an abstract machine (or “virtual machine”) for optimal execution speed. The pawn compiler outputs P-code (or “bytecode”). Run-time efficiency, stability, simplicity and a small, deterministic footprint were key design criteria for both the language and the abstract machine. At a glance For any information not in this list, please browse through this page. Hopefully you will find what you are looking for. Introduction An introduction to the pawn language and abstract machine from a programmer's perspective was published in the October 1999 issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal —but at the time, the language was called Small. More verbose than the article, and more appropriate for non-expert programmers, is the manual. The manual contains a brief (tutorial) overview of the language, a language reference, programming notes on the abstract machine, casual notes about the why and how of many language features, and reference material. pawn is a simple, C-like, language. pawn is a robust language with a compiler that has a good error/warning system, and an abstract machine with (static) P-code verification and dynamic checks. pawn is quick: optimized assembly-language core interpreters are available for x86, ARMv4 (ARM7TDMI), ARMv6-M (ARM Cortex M0/M0+), ARMv7-M (ARM Cortex M3) instruction sets; there is a direct-threaded interpreter in C with GCC extensions; and for 32-bit x86, there is Marc Peter's “just-in-time” compiler. pawn is small. It has been fitted on an Atmel ATmega128 microcontroller, NXP LPC2138 and LPC2106 microcontrollers (ARM7TDMI core with 32 KiB RAM), ARM Cortex M0 microcontrollers with sometimes as little as 8 KiB RAM and 32 KiB Flash ROM, as well as on a Texas Instrument's MSP430F1611 (MSP430 core with 10 KiB RAM and 48 KiB Flash ROM). Using code overlays that are loaded on demand, pawn is able to run large scripts in little memo...