The Elk Shell LanguageUsage
Running Code
When the Elk-program is executed without any command line arguments, it drops the user into the interactive shell mode. This allows you to type commands and get results immediately, like you would expect from a shell program. When a file path is given as a command line argument, the code in that file is evaluated.
elk
elk someFile.elkelk someFile.elkInteractive Mode
An interactive shell session can be started by running elk without any command line arguments. The following shortcuts are available:
| Key Combination | Action |
|---|---|
| Left Arrow, Ctrl+B | Move cursor left |
| Right Arrow, Ctrl+F | Move cursor right, Apply hint |
| Up Arrow, Ctrl+P | Next item in history (that starts with the text currently in the prompt, if any) |
| Down Arrow, Ctrl+N | Previous item in history |
| Ctrl+Left Arrow | Move one word to the left |
| Ctrl+Right Arrow | move one word to the right |
| Home, Ctrl+A | Move to the start of the line |
| End, Ctrl+E | Move to the end of the line |
| Backspace | Remove the character to the left |
| Delete | Remove the character to the right |
| Ctrl+Backspace, Ctrl+W | Remove the word to the left |
| Ctrl+L | Clear the console |
| Ctrl+U | Remove everything to the left |
| Ctrl+R | Search in history |
| Tab | Next tab completion |
| Shift+Tab | Previous tab completion |
Multi-Line Input
There are several ways to insert a new line into the command line prompt without submitting:
- Leave a brace unclosed and press enter, eg.
if x { - Leave a string literal unclosed and press enter, eg.
"hello world - Press enter after typing a
|symbol (this will also put the pipe on a new line) - Press enter after typing a
\symbol