Welcome! In half an hour you will know the whole language. Do not rush -- type every example yourself and press RUN. Mistakes are part of the game.

If you have not installed CMC yet, see Installing CMC.

Minute 0-2: Talking

oga "Ooga booga!"

oga says things. Text lives in quotes. You can say several things in one go; CMC puts a space between them:

oga "Ugg", "has", 3, "rocks"

Ugg has 3 rocks

Notes start with ugg and reach the end of the line:

ugg this whole line is a note
oga "hello"   ugg this part is a note

Minute 2-6: Boxes (variables)

grunk name = "Ugg"
grunk age = 4

oga name, "is", age

grunk makes a box. To change a box you already made, just use =:

age = age + 1
oga name, "is now", age

Box names can have letters, numbers, and _, and cannot start with a number. You cannot name a box after a CMC word like nom or unga.

Magic boxes you did not make:

Minute 6-10: Math and text

oga 2 + 3        ugg 5
oga 10 - 4       ugg 6
oga 6 * 7        ugg 42
oga 9 / 3        ugg 3     (whole when it fits!)
oga 10 / 4       ugg 2.5
oga 10 % 3       ugg 1     (the remainder)

Math helpers:

oga round(2.6)   ugg 3
oga flat(2.9)    ugg 2
oga roof(2.1)    ugg 3
oga abs(0 - 7)   ugg 7
oga big(3, 9)    ugg 9
oga small(3, 9)  ugg 3
oga root(81)     ugg 9
oga pow(2, 5)    ugg 32
oga munga(1, 6)  ugg surprise! a random number

Text sticks together with +, and goop turns other things into text:

grunk rocks = 7
oga "I have " + goop(rocks) + " rocks"
oga shout("hello")     ugg HELLO
oga whisper("QUIET")   ugg quiet
oga flip("booga")      ugg agoob
oga nom("cave")        ugg 4, how many letters

Minute 10-14: Choices

grunk rocks = 5

binga rocks > 3
    oga "Lots of rocks!"
wonga
    oga "Not many rocks."
unga

• binga = if
• wonga = else
• unga = the block ends here

Checks you can use: ==, !=, <, <=, >, >=. Join checks with and, or, not:

binga rocks > 2 and rocks < 10
    oga "A nice pile."
unga

wonga binga means "else if":

binga rocks > 9
    oga "huge!"
wonga binga rocks > 4
    oga "medium!"
wonga
    oga "small!"
unga

Minute 14-18: Loops

booga repeats a set number of times. lap tells you which time it is:

booga 3
    oga "lap", lap
unga

zug repeats while a check stays gronk:

grunk fuel = 3
zug fuel > 0
    oga "zoom! fuel:", fuel
    fuel = fuel - 1
unga
oga "out of fuel"

zoop walks through a pile (list) or the letters of text:

grunk pets = snorf("dog", "cat", "rock")
zoop pet in pets
    oga "I love my", pet
unga

zoop letter in "cave"
    oga letter
unga

If a zug loop never stops, CMC stops it for you and says

"This program ran for a very long time."

Minute 18-23: Clumps (your own words)

A clump is a piece of code with a name.

clump greet(name)
    oga "Hello " + name + "!"
unga

greet("Ugg")
greet("Oona")

Use ork to give an answer back:

clump double(n)
    ork n * 2
unga

oga double(21)

A clump can call itself. That is called recursion:

clump countdown(n)
    binga n > 0
        oga n
        countdown(n - 1)
    unga
unga

countdown(5)

Minute 23-27: Piles (lists)

A pile holds many things in order.

grunk bag = snorf()
plop(bag, "apple")
plop(bag, "rock")
plop(bag, "banana")

oga bag              ugg [apple, rock, banana]
oga nom(bag)         ugg 3
oga bag[0]           ugg apple
oga bag[-1]          ugg banana
oga skoop(bag, 1)    ugg rock

grunk last = yoink(bag)
oga "yoinked", last
oga bag              ugg [apple, rock]

bag[0] = "golden apple"
oga bag

• snorf(...) makes a pile
• plop(pile, thing) adds to the end
• nom(pile) counts
• yoink(pile) takes the last thing off
• spot numbers start at 0, and -1 is the last spot
• "cat" in pets asks if something is inside

Minute 27-30: Drawing and asking

skrib size 400, 400
skrib color "red"
skrib dot 200, 200, 20
grunk who = blorp "Who is there?"
skrib write who, 150, 250
oga "drew", who

• skrib draws in the Draw tab (or a window in the terminal)
• blorp asks the person a question; the answer comes back as text
• numba(answer) turns text into a number so you can do math with it

You know CMC now

The rest is practice. Try these:

1. Make a clump double and print doubles from 1 to 10 with booga.
2. Make a pile of your favorite foods and zoop over it.
3. Write a guessing game with munga(1, 10), blorp, and numba.
4. Draw a house with skrib blob and skrib box.
5. Read All the words A-Z and find a word you have not used.

When you are ready for the next level, read the Style guide to learn how to write CMC like a wise old cave painter.