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6 Programming

Here is a short introductory example to the Asymptote programming language that highlights the similarity of its control structures with those of C, C++, and Java:

// This is a comment.

// Declaration: Declare x to be a real variable;
real x;

// Assignment: Assign the real variable x the value 1.
x=1.0;

// Conditional: Test if x equals 1 or not.
if(x == 1.0) {
  write("x equals 1.0");
} else {
  write("x is not equal to 1.0");
}

// Loop: iterate 10 times
for(int i=0; i < 10; ++i) {
  write(i);
}

Asymptote supports while, do, break, and continue statements just as in C/C++. It also supports the Java-style shorthand for iterating over all elements of an array:

// Iterate over an array
int[] array={1,1,2,3,5};
for(int k : array) {
  write(k);
}

In addition, it supports many features beyond the ones found in those languages.

• Data types
• Paths and guides
• Pens
• Transforms
• Frames and pictures
• Files
• Variable initializers
• Structures
• Operators
• Implicit scaling
• Functions
• Arrays
• Casts
• Import
• Static