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Tutorial: Your First Script

Welcome to Pith! In this tutorial, you’ll write your very first program, learn the basic building blocks, and turn your script into a real standalone application that runs at native speed.

It takes less than 5 minutes, so let’s jump right in!

Step 1: Hello, World!

First, create a new file named hello.pi in your favorite text editor.

Add this single line of code to it:

# hello.pi
print "Hello from Pith!"

Running Your Script

Open your terminal in the same folder and type:

pith run hello.pi

You will see:

Hello from Pith!

Congratulations! You just ran your first Pith program. Notice how instantaneous it was? pith run compiles and executes your code directly into memory in milliseconds.

Step 2: Adding a Variable

Let’s make our program a little more personal. Instead of hardcoding the message, let’s store a name in a variable:

# hello.pi
name = "Alex"
print "Hello, " + name + "!"

Run it again:

pith run hello.pi

Output:

Hello, Alex!

Clean Syntax

Look closely at what we wrote:

  • No semicolons ; at the end of lines
  • No parentheses required around print
  • Just clean, natural code

Step 3: Making Decisions with if

Now let’s teach our script how to make choices. We’ll check if the player’s score is high enough to win:

# hello.pi
player = "Alex"
score = 100

print "Welcome, " + player + "!"

if score >= 100
    print "You win the game!"
else
    print "Keep playing!"
end

Run it:

pith run hello.pi

Output:

Welcome, Alex!
You win the game!

In Pith, code blocks don’t need curly braces {} or indentation rules. You open an if block, write your code, and close it with a single end.

Step 4: Making Numbers Change with while and mut

Now let’s add a loop that counts down from 3 before starting:

# hello.pi
mut count = 3

while count > 0
    print "Starting in: " + count
    count = count - 1
end

print "Go!"

Notice the word mut in front of count? By default, Pith prevents variables from changing so you don’t accidentally introduce bugs. Adding mut (short for mutable) tells Pith: “I want this variable to change as the program runs!”

Run the script:

pith run hello.pi

Output:

Starting in: 3
Starting in: 2
Starting in: 1
Go!

Step 5: Build a Standalone Executable

Here is where Pith really shines. With other beginner-friendly languages, you need a heavy runtime, virtual machine, or interpreter installed on every computer that runs your script.

With Pith, you can compile your script into a single, standalone binary file with one command:

pith build hello.pi

Pith builds a standalone executable named hello. Now run it directly from your terminal:

./hello

You can take this hello file and run it on another computer without needing to install Pith at all! It runs directly on the processor with maximum speed and minimum memory usage.

What’s Next?

You now know how to write scripts, store variables, make decisions, repeat actions, and build standalone apps.

Here are great places to explore next: