Explore real Ball programs and see how they compile to different target languages.
Ball programs are stored as Protocol Buffers (binary or JSON). Shown here as YAML for readability.
The simplest Ball program — prints a message to the console using the std.print base function.
name: hello_world
modules:
-
name: main
functions:
-
name: main
body:
call:
module: std
function: print
input:
messageCreation:
typeName: PrintInput
fields:
-
name: message
value:
literal:
{ stringValue: Hello, World! }
metadata:
{ kind: function }
moduleImports:
-
{ name: std }
entryModule: main
entryFunction: main
void main() {
print('Hello, World!');
}
A recursive Fibonacci implementation demonstrating control flow (if), comparison (lte), arithmetic (add, subtract), and function recursion.
name: fibonacci
modules:
-
name: main
functions:
-
name: fibonacci
inputType: int
outputType: int
body:
block:
statements:
-
expression:
call:
module: std
function: if
input:
messageCreation:
typeName: ""
fields:
-
name: condition
value:
call:
module: std
function: lte
input:
messageCreation:
typeName: ""
fields:
-
name: left
value:
reference:
{ name: n } -
name: right
value:
literal:
{ intValue: "1" } -
name: then
value:
call:
module: std
function: return
input:
messageCreation:
typeName: ""
fields:
-
name: value
value:
reference:
{ name: n }
result:
call:
module: std
function: add
input:
messageCreation:
typeName: ""
fields:
-
name: left
value:
call:
function: fibonacci
input:
call:
module: std
function: subtract
input:
messageCreation:
typeName: ""
fields:
-
name: left
value:
reference:
{ name: n } -
name: right
value:
literal:
{ intValue: "1" } -
name: right
value:
call:
function: fibonacci
input:
call:
module: std
function: subtract
input:
messageCreation:
typeName: ""
fields:
-
name: left
value:
reference:
{ name: n } -
name: right
value:
literal:
{ intValue: "2" }
metadata:
kind: function
params:
-
name: n
type: int -
name: main
body:
block:
statements:
-
let:
name: result
value:
call:
function: fibonacci
input:
literal:
{ intValue: "10" }
metadata:
{ keyword: final } -
expression:
call:
module: std
function: print
input:
messageCreation:
typeName: PrintInput
fields:
-
name: message
value:
call:
module: std
function: to_string
input:
messageCreation:
typeName: ""
fields:
-
name: value
value:
reference:
{ name: result }
metadata:
{ kind: function }
moduleImports:
-
{ name: std }
entryModule: main
entryFunction: main
int fibonacci(int n) {
if ((n <= 1)) {
return n;
}
return (fibonacci((n - 1)) + fibonacci((n - 2)));
}
void main() {
final result = fibonacci(10);
print(result.toString());
}
All examples are in the examples/ directory of the repository:
# List available examples
ls examples/
# → all_constructs/ comprehensive/ fibonacci/ hello_world/
# Compile any example to Dart
cd dart/compiler
dart run bin/compile.dart \
../../examples/fibonacci/fibonacci.ball.json
# Run with the Ball engine (interpreter)
cd ../engine
dart run bin/run.dart \
../../examples/hello_world/hello_world.ball.json
# Encode Dart source to Ball
cd ../encoder
dart run bin/encode.dart some_file.dart