Writing and Running Sheerpower Programs

Writing Your First Sheerpower Program
Sheerpower source code is written into a text file with the file type of spsrc for the primary program or spinc for "include files".

Note: In Sheerpower, when specifying file paths, the '@' symbol at the beginning of a path refers to the directory of the currently running program. This makes it easy to reference files relative to your program's location, enhancing portability and simplifying path management.

// This will open a file named 'data.txt' in the same directory as the running program open file data_ch: name '@data.txt', access input

Sheerpower comes with its own Integrated Development Environment editor called SPDEV, but any text editor can be used, such as Visual Studio Code (VSC). In fact, Sheerpower has extensions for VSC to make writing, debugging, and running Sheerpower code fast and easy.

Validating and Running Your Sheerpower Program
To validate that your program has no typographical or syntax errors, from SPDEV choose the validate

button. Any syntax errors or misspellings will be highlighted.

To run a Sheerpower program from within the SPDEV development environment, open it from the SPDEV environment and choose the run button

. This will validate and then run the code.

To run a Sheerpower program from outside of the development environment, double-click on the name of the file or include its name in a batch or command file. You can also run a Sheerpower program from the command line by typing sp4gl xxx where xxx is the name of the Sheerpower program. Sheerpower programs can also be run from Visual Studio Code using the Sheerpower extension for VSC.

Security note:

Sheerpower will not run a program that lives in a temporary folder (the user's %TEMP% folder and the like). It stops with the message Cannot run SheerPower from a TEMPORARY folder and does nothing else. This is deliberate. A program sitting in a temporary folder is the classic shape of a dropped or downloaded script — the way a great deal of malware arrives and executes — so declining to run from there closes off a common attack path for every Sheerpower installation.

Keep your programs in an ordinary folder of your own (a project folder, your Documents, a source tree). This matters most for tools and AI assistants that generate a Sheerpower program on the fly to do a job: write the generated file beside the tool or under the project, never under %TEMP%, or the run will stop at that message and wait.

Sheerpower has no main() routine. Instead, programs start execution at the first source line.

Long Term Upward Compatibility
Sheerpower runs under all versions of Windows Desktop and Windows Server that have been released over the last 10 years. Great care is taken to keep Sheerpower upward compatible with older versions of itself. Sheerpower code written 10 years ago will continue to run into the future. This greatly reduces code maintenance costs and allows developers to focus on developing new code instead of refactoring old code.

Because of Sheerpower's high-speed compiler, it is efficient to write and test code in small increments. While in the Sheerpower Development Environment, errors are reported instantly and are highlighted, explained, and clickable for rapid correction and recompiling.

Sheerpower optimizes your time as a developer. You write less code. Your time spent compiling code and experiencing coding changes is amazingly short - typically less than one second. Your debugging time is greatly reduced. Sheerpower adds enjoyment to your programming life!

Sheerpower's language syntax is similar to that of PHP or Python. This makes it easier to learn for both experts and beginners. Debugging is also quick and easy due to its virtually instantaneous compiles, error reporting, and code profiling.

Feel free to edit the code below and then click on

to run your code.

Hide Description

a$ b$ x y

Enter or modify the code below, and then click on RUN

Looking for the full power of Sheerpower?
Check out the Sheerpower website. Free to download. Free to use.