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<head>
  <link href="favicon.ico" rel="shortcut icon" type="image/x-icon"/>
  <link href="style.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
  <title>How to run BQN</title>
</head>
<div class="nav">(<a href="https://github.com/mlochbaum/BQN">github</a>) / <a href="index.html">BQN</a></div>
<h1 id="how-to-run-bqn"><a class="header" href="#how-to-run-bqn">How to run BQN</a></h1>
<p><a href="https://github.com/dzaima/CBQN">CBQN</a> is the primary offline implementation. Scripts in this repository start with <code><span class='Comment'>#! /usr/bin/env bqn</span></code> in order to look up the user's <code><span class='Value'>bqn</span></code> executable, which is expected to be CBQN.</p>
<p>Third-party packages to build some BQN implementations are available for both Nix and Arch Linux. For general use I recommend <code><span class='Value'>cbqn</span></code> from nixpkgs (Nix) and <code><span class='Value'>cbqn</span><span class='Function'>-</span><span class='Value'>git</span></code> from the AUR (Arch). There are also third party <a href="https://github.com/actalley/WinBQN">Windows builds</a> hosted on Github.</p>
<p>For tools related to running BQN, see the <a href="editors/index.html">editor plugins</a> and <a href="https://mlochbaum.github.io/BQN/fonts.html">fonts page</a>.</p>
<p>All these websites run BQN (on your computer, except Attempt This Online):</p>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Link</th>
<th>Style</th>
<th>Engine</th>
<th>Comments</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://mlochbaum.github.io/BQN/try.html">Online REPL</a></td>
<td>One-shot</td>
<td>JS</td>
<td>&quot;Explain&quot;, error marker</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://bqnpad.mechanize.systems/">BQNPAD</a></td>
<td>Session</td>
<td>JS, Wasm</td>
<td>Preview, syntax coloring</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://ato.pxeger.com/run?1=m704qTBvwYKlpSVpuhZoFJQGAA">Attempt This Online</a></td>
<td>TIO</td>
<td>CBQN</td>
<td>Server-side</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://dso.surge.sh/#bqn">Do Stuff Online</a></td>
<td>TIO</td>
<td>JS</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://razetime.github.io/bqn-repl/">Razetime</a></td>
<td>Session</td>
<td>JS</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://ktye.github.io/zoo/index.html#bqn">ktye/zoo</a></td>
<td>Session</td>
<td>JS</td>
<td>Many array languages</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://observablehq.com/@lsh/bqn">Observable</a></td>
<td>Notebook</td>
<td>JS</td>
<td>For import in Observable</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://dancek.github.io/bqn-80">BQN-80</a></td>
<td>One-shot</td>
<td>JS</td>
<td>Create animations</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Further details in the sections below.</p>
<h3 id="self-hosted-bqn"><a class="header" href="#self-hosted-bqn">Self-hosted BQN</a></h3>
<p>This version of BQN is <a href="implementation/index.html">implemented</a> mainly in BQN itself, but a host language supplies basic functionality and can also replace primitives for better performance. This also allows <a href="doc/embed.html">embedding</a>, where programs in the host language can include BQN code. It fully supports all functionality specified so far. System value support varies as it's implemented separately in each host.</p>
<p>Support in the following languages has been implemented (details in the subsections below):</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://github.com/dzaima/CBQN">C</a>, targeting high performance. Usually fairly fast.</li>
<li>Javascript, in this repository. Slow (compiles at ~5kB/s) but usable.</li>
<li>BQN (<a href="https://github.com/mlochbaum/BQN/blob/master/bqn.bqn">bqn.bqn</a>), for testing without a build step.</li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/andreypopp/BQN.jl">Julia</a> embedding, with common primitives implemented natively. Slow startup.</li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/ashermancinelli/cxbqn">C++</a>, planning to enable GPU use. Still slow; some cool features.</li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/cannadayr/rsbqn/">Rust</a>, motivated by web use (an <a href="https://github.com/cannadayr/ebqn">Erlang</a> version is abandoned as too slow). Note that CBQN <a href="https://detegr.github.io/cbqn-rs/cbqn/">embeds in Rust</a> as well.</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="javascript"><a class="header" href="#javascript">Javascript</a></h4>
<p>The file <a href="https://github.com/mlochbaum/BQN/blob/master/docs/bqn.js">docs/bqn.js</a> is zero-dependency Javascript, and can be loaded from HTML or Node.js. For command line use, call the Node.js script <a href="https://github.com/mlochbaum/BQN/blob/master/bqn.js">bqn.js</a>, passing a file and <code><span class='Value'>•args</span></code>, or <code><span class='Function'>-</span><span class='Value'>e</span></code> to execute all remaining arguments directly and print the results.</p>
<h4 id="cbqn"><a class="header" href="#cbqn">CBQN</a></h4>
<p>C sources are kept in the <a href="https://github.com/dzaima/CBQN">CBQN</a> repository, but it also depends on bytecode from the BQN sources here. Running <code><span class='Value'>make</span></code> gets a working copy right away with saved bytecode. Then to use the latest bytecode, call <code><span class='Value'>$</span> <span class='Value'>.</span><span class='Function'>/BQN</span> <span class='Value'>genRuntime</span> <span class='Value'>…</span><span class='Function'>/BQN</span></code>, where <code><span class='Value'>…</span><span class='Function'>/BQN</span></code> points to this repository, and run <code><span class='Value'>make</span></code> again.</p>
<p>CBQN is developed on Linux, and as-is will only run on Unix-like systems (including macOS). To run on Windows, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Subsystem_for_Linux">WSL</a> has the best support but there are also native builds based on each of Cygwin and Mingw <a href="https://github.com/actalley/WinBQN">here</a>.</p>
<p><code><span class='Value'>genRuntime</span></code> can also be run with another BQN implementation (the Node.js one works but takes up to a minute), and plain <code><span class='Value'>.</span><span class='Function'>/</span><span class='Value'>genRuntime</span></code> uses your system's <code><span class='Value'>bqn</span></code> executable. I symlink <code><span class='Value'>…</span><span class='Function'>/CBQN/BQN</span></code> to <code><span class='Value'>~</span><span class='Function'>/</span><span class='Value'>bin</span><span class='Function'>/</span><span class='Value'>bqn</span></code> so I can easily use CBQN for scripting.</p>
<p>CBQN uses the self-hosted runtime to achieve full primitive coverage, and implements specific primitives or parts of primitives natively to speed them up. This means primitives with native support—including everything used by the compiler—are fairly fast while others are much slower.</p>
<h3 id="dzaimabqn"><a class="header" href="#dzaimabqn">dzaima/BQN</a></h3>
<p><a href="https://github.com/dzaima/BQN/">dzaima/BQN</a> is an implementation in Java created by modifying the existing dzaima/APL, and should be easy to run on desktop Linux and Android. It was historically the main implementation, but is now updated only to stay up to date with language changes. Major missing functionality is dyadic Depth (<code><span class='Modifier2'>⚇</span></code>) and set functions <code><span class='Function'>⊐⊒∊⍷</span></code> with rank &gt;1, and there are various small differences from the BQN spec, mostly to do with rank, handling of atoms, fills, and headers. It uses UTF-16 instead of UTF-32, so that characters like <code><span class='Value'>𝕩</span></code> don't behave correctly.</p>
<p>To get an executable that works like CBQN, make a script with the following contents. Scripts may use <code><span class='Comment'>#! /usr/bin/env dbqn</span></code> to run with dzaima/BQN specifically, but this is rare now (in this repository, only <code><span class='Value'>test</span><span class='Function'>/</span><span class='Value'>dzaima</span></code> does it).</p>
<pre><span class='Comment'>#! /bin/bash
</span>
<span class='Value'>java</span> <span class='Function'>-</span><span class='Value'>jar</span> <span class='Function'>/</span><span class='Value'>path</span><span class='Function'>/</span><span class='Value'>to</span><span class='Function'>/</span><span class='Value'>dzaima</span><span class='Function'>/BQN/BQN</span><span class='Value'>.jar</span> <span class='String'>&quot;$@&quot;</span>
</pre>
<p>If compiled with Native Image, <code><span class='Value'>nBQN</span></code> can be used directly instead.</p>
<h3 id="bqn2ngn"><a class="header" href="#bqn2ngn">BQN2NGN</a></h3>
<p><a href="https://github.com/mlochbaum/BQN2NGN">BQN2NGN</a> is a prototype implementation in Javascript built to experiment with the language. It's now abandoned.</p>