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    Imba

    Imba is a friendly full-stack programming language for the web that compiles to performant JavaScript. It has language-level support for defining, extending, subclassing, instantiating and rendering DOM nodes.

    Get started

    Try Imba instantly in your browser with our playground, or create a new project with:

    npx imba create
    

    Documentation

    To get started with Imba, we recommend reading through the official guide.

    Why Imba?

    Minimal syntax

    Imba's syntax is minimal, beautiful, and packed with clever features. It combines logic, markup and styling in a powerful way. Fewer keystrokes and less switching files mean you'll be able to build things fast.

    import './util/reset.css'
    
    global css html,body m:0 p:0 w:100% h:100%
    
    tag login-form < form
    
        css input rd:md bc:gray3 h:20px fs:md
        css button rd:md c:white bg:gray4 @hover:blue4
    
        <self @submit.prevent=api.login(name,secret)>
            <input.username type='text' bind=name>
            <input.password type='password' bind=secret>
            <button> "Login as {name}"
    
    imba.mount <login-form[pos:abs d:grid ja:center]>
    

    Runs on both server and client

    Imba powers both the frontend and the backend of Scrimba.com, our learning platform with 100K+ monthly active users. On the frontend, Imba replaces e.g., Vue or React, and on the backend, it works with the Node ecosystem (e.g., npm).

    import express from 'express'
    import services from './services.ts'
    import html from './index.html'
    import image from './confused-cat.png'
    
    const app = express!
    
    app.get '/404' do (req,res)
        res.send String <html> <body>
            <img src=image>
            <h1> "We could not find this page!"
    
    app.get '/' do (req,res)
        res.send html.body
    

    Integrated styling

    Inspired by Tailwind, Imba brings styles directly into your code. Styles can be scoped to files, components, and even parts of your tag trees. Style modifiers like @hover, @lg, @landscape and @dark can be used for extremely concise yet powerful styling.

    # global styles
    global css button
        position: relative
        display: block
        background: #b2f5ea
        @hover background: #b2f9ea
    
    # tailwind-inspired shorthands
    global css button
        pos:relative d:block bg:blue5 bg@hover:blue6
    
    tag App
        # scoped styles
        css item bg:blue4 m:2
    
        <self[d:grid pos:relative]> # inline styles
            <ul> for {type,title} in items
                <li.item is-{type}> title
    

    Blazing fast, Zero config

    Imba comes with a built-in bundler based on the blazing fast esbuild. Import stylesheets, images, typescript, html, workers and more without any configuration. Bundling is so fast that there is no difference between production and development mode - it all happens on-demand.

    # importing a worker
    const worker = import.worker './analyzer'
    const analyzer = new Worker(worker.url)
    # import an image
    const logo = import './images/logo.png'
    console.log "logo size: {logo.width}x{logo.height} - at {logo.url}"
    

    When you run your app with the imba command, it automatically bundles and compiles your imba code, along with typescript, css and many other file types. It provides automatic reloading of both the server and client.

    Typing and tooling

    The tooling is implemented as a typescript server plugin giving us great intellisense, diagnostics, and even cross-file refactorings that works with js/ts files in the same project. You can import types just like in typescript, and annotate variables, parameters and expressions. Like the language, the tooling is still in alpha, but improving every day.

    import type { CookieOptions } from 'express-serve-static-core'
    
    def flash res\Response, body\string, settings = {}
        let options\CookieOptions = {
            ...settings
            maxAge: 86400
            secure: true
            httpOnly: false
        }
    
        res.cookie('flash',body,options)
    

    Community

    For questions and support, please use our community chat on Discord.

    License

    MIT

    Copyright (c) 2015-present, Sindre Aarsaether

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