We assume fairly decent familiarity with C language to learn mal language. Note that a real mal source program written by a true mallu should always have the extension .mal.

• Equivalant to begin and end are thudang~ and niRth~.
• Two boolean constants nagnasatthyam and pachchakkaLLam are very central to this language.
• if (<expr>) <stmt_block> else <stmt_block>
  is replaced by the following syntax
  (<expr>) ANengil <stmt_block> allengil<stmt_block>.
  

  while(<expr>) do <stmt_block>
  is replaced by
  (<expr>) pachchakkaLLam Akum vare AvaRtthikkuka <stmt_block> .
  

• The preprocessor declarations and file inclusions are handled by
  #uLppedutthuka <filename>
#ennuvechchAl <pre_processor_const> <expr>

  For example
  #ennuvechchAl noNa pachchakkaLLam
#ennuvechchAl nEr~ nagnasatthyam
  would make things a lot more easier.

• If guys get the feeling that this language is just a dupe of C language created by simple replacement of keywords by equivalent malayALam words- you are wrong!. Taking into consideration the inherent informality of malayalam language, we are allowed to use close to natural language variations.

  For example, instead of thudang~, thudangikkO -also works. Similarly instead of niRth~, which sounds a bit abrupt we can use niRutthadE or even niRutthikkE which would stop gently.

• Boy!, compile and runtime error messages generated, are rather crude and obscene. So watch out!

  For the usual
  Segmentation fault-core dumped
  I got something like
  ninte vAyil maNNidu.

  A simple type error evoked the following response
  bha!, kazhuvErda mOnE!, evide nOkkiyadA program cheyyunnethu?

• As far as variable names go, the usual practice is to use the names of simple objects like- thEnga, mAnga, kutta, vatti, chatti, kalam. As of now, there is no restriction on this. (Of course, reserved words cannot be used). This means you can use any names, even amma, appan, appAppan, ammAvan etc. But please don't use bad words or words with double meaning. mal compiler is smart enough to recognize them.
• Input and output are handled by library functions
  vAyikkuka(<format>, <variable_list>);
ezhuthuka(<format>, <expression_list>);


The differences will be only cosmetic. For example, the kozhikkOd~ version will have error messages which begin with - nte RabbE and the I/O functions vAyikkuka and ezhuthukawill be replaced by bAyikkuga and eythuga respectively.

A sAmAnam version, (with object oriented support) is also under preparation. This is, of course, going to be called mal++.

We share a vision, a dream, -mal language being used by mallu-s all over the world and a programming culture which reeks of mallu flavor. We have to make that dream come true. shouldn't we?

/***************************************************/
/* 'enthokkeyund~ ASAnE?' -ennu patthu pRavaShyam  */
/*  ezhuthunna 			                   */
/*  oru mal program.			           */
/*  ezhuthiyath~ - Koshy George		           */
/*  thIyathi       - makaram,11, 1183              */
/*-------------------------------------------------*/
#uLppedutthuka /
pRadhAna_inam( )  /*equivalent to main()*/
{
pURNasankhya thEnga; /*pURNasankhya is equivalent to int, 
		bhinnasankhya is equivalent to float*/

thEngA = 0;
(thEngA < 10) pachchakkaLLam Akumvare AvaRtthikkuka
	{
	ezhuthuka ("%s\n", "enthokkeyund~ ASAnE?");
	thEngA++;
	}
}

/***************************************************/