Release	Version
Avail VM
Avail Standard Library
Avail Artifact
Avail Gradle Plugin

OVERVIEW

Avail is a multi-paradigmatic general purpose programming language whose feature set emphasizes support for constructing domain-specific languages (DSLs). Anvil is the integrated development environment (IDE) of Avail, and it is bundled directly with the language for convenience. Due to the advanced lexical and syntactical features of Avail, popular IDEs such as IntelliJ and Eclipse are unsuitable for use, so you should use Anvil for best ergonomics.

Avail is an open-source project that comprises a language virtual machine, a standard library, and an IDE. All three are released under the 3-clause BSD license.

• Quickstart
• Before Obtaining Avail
• Obtaining Avail
• Building Anvil
• Running Anvil
• Embedding Avail

This document describes the entire process of obtaining, installing, configuring, and running Anvil, for the purpose of developing software in Avail.

If you are an experienced software developer, already familiar with Git, Java, and Gradle, then you probably want to proceed directly to Quickstart so that you can begin using Avail as quickly as possible.

If you prefer gentler guidance or more detailed information, then you should probably read the other sections below as well.

In this document, $PROJ always refers to the directory into which you cloned Avail.

QUICKSTART

Herein is the fastest path to getting started, so that you can jump right into writing Avail. The steps below will:

1. Clone Avail onto your system.
2. Build Anvil from source code.
3. Open Anvil on your desktop.

If (1) you are using a Unix-based system, such as Linux, macOS, Minimalist GNU for Windows (MinGW), or Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), and (2) you already have access to Git:

 $ git clone https://github.com/AvailLang/Avail.git $PROJ
 $ cd $PROJ
 $ ./gradlew :avail:packageAndRun

If (1) you are using vanilla Windows and (2) you already have access to Git:

 $ git.exe clone https://github.com/AvailLang/Avail.git $PROJ
 $ cd $PROJ
 $ .\gradlew.bat :avail:packageAndRun

Anvil's project manager should open on your desktop. You can now:

1. Explore the Avail standard library and official examples by opening examples-avail-config.json, or
2. Create your own Avail project, based on the Avail standard library.

(Screenshots and additional guidance will follow, when the official release of Avail 2.0.0 approaches.)

BEFORE OBTAINING AVAIL

In order to obtain Avail locally you will need to make sure that you have obtained and installed the prerequisite software:

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1. Git: This is the version control software used by the Avail team to develop and deliver Avail.

To see if you have Git installed, try this:

$ git version

If Git is installed and available on your path, then it will respond with a version string like:

git version 2.39.2

The latest version of Git can be obtained at:

http://git-scm.com/

Please follow any installation directions provided by the Git website or included with the Git product.

The main command is called git. Please make sure that it is available on your path.

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2. Java: You will need version 17 of the Java Development Kit (JDK) Standard Edition (SE), NOT an earlier version. Many modern systems already have some version of the JDK, so you should check your JDK version before obtaining and installing it from OpenJDK (or some other vendor). You can do so like this:

$ javac -version

And hopefully you get back something like this:

javac 17.0.2

Otherwise, the latest version of the JDK can be obtained at:

https://jdk.java.net/

Please follow any installation directions provided by the website or included with the JDK, especially with respect to setting up the appropriate environment variables for command-line use.

The commands of interest are java and javac. Please make sure that these are on your path.

OBTAINING AVAIL

The preferred method of acquiring Avail is from The Avail Foundation's official public repository. This repository is located at:

https://github.com/AvailLang/Avail.git

Choose the directory where you would like the local copy of the Avail repository to reside (i.e., $PROJ). Clone the official public repository into it like this:

$ git clone https://github.com/AvailLang/Avail.git $PROJ

Even if you are planning to install Avail for system-wide usage, you will probably want to choose a non-system directory to house the local copy of the Avail repository.

BUILDING

To compile Anvil into an executable JAR, without automatically running it thereafter, navigate to $PROJ and use the provided Gradle wrapper. On a Unix-based system:

$ ./gradlew :avail:package

On vanilla Windows:

$ .\gradlew.bat :avail:package

You should see output similar to this:

> Configure project :avail
Java version for tests: 17
AvailRoot(49): /Users/avail/projects/avail/distro/src/avail
AvailRoot(57): /Users/avail/projects/avail/distro/src/builder-tests
AvailRoot(52): /Users/avail/projects/avail/distro/src/examples
AvailRoot(51): /Users/avail/projects/avail/distro/src/website

> Configure project :avail-stdlib

BUILD SUCCESSFUL in 9s
12 actionable tasks: 5 executed, 1 from cache, 6 up-to-date

Toward the end of the transcript you should find BUILD SUCCESSFUL, which indicates that your build is ready to use. You can find it here:

$PROJ/avail-anvil.jar

This executable JAR file contains the whole of Anvil, which bundles the Avail compiler toolchain and runtime within.

Naturally, you can move avail-anvil.jar to another location if you feel so inclined. You will need to adjust the paths mentioned below to account for relocation if you have done this.

RUNNING

At any time after Anvil has been built, you can navigate to $PROJ and launch Anvil using the provided Gradle wrapper. To launch Anvil on a Unix-based system:

$ ./gradlew :avail:run

To launch Anvil on vanilla Windows:

$ .\gradlew.bat :avail:run

If the default JDK on your system is version 17 or later, you may be able to double click this JAR file to launch Anvil.

If all else fails, you can also launch Anvil by invoking java directly. On a Unix-based system:

$ java -jar $PROJ/avail-anvil.jar

On vanilla Windows:

$ java.exe -jar $PROJ\avail-anvil.jar

EMBEDDING AVAIL

If you wish to embed Avail into a larger JVM project, rather than use Avail as a standalone language, you can import a prebuilt version of Avail as a dependency. See the Avail Gradle Plugin for more details on how to accomplish this. You can also refer to our example projects to see how Avail can be incorporated into a JVM project.

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Thank you for using Avail!

                           on behalf of Avail                                                              
                  Richard Arriaga <[email protected]>
                  Mark van Gulik <[email protected]>                       
                 Leslie Schultz <[email protected]>
                   Todd L Smith <[email protected]>