SATELLITE TUTORIAL FOR BEGINNERS

I WROTE THIS TUTORIAL FOR MY MOM TO FOLLOW, SHE IS STILL LEARNING TO PROGRAM THE COMPUTER, SO I MADE THIS TUTORIAL EASY. SO THAT SHE COULD STILL FOLLOW IT BECAUSE SHE IS STILL LEARNING ABOUT PROGRAMMING, BUT THIS IS ALSO A PERFECT PLACE TO START FOR SOMEONE WHO IS A BEGINNER.

FIRST, TO RUN SATELLITE PROGRAMS, YOU NEED TO INSTALL SATELLITE. GO TO THE DOWNLOAD BUTTON AT THE TOP OF THIS WEBSITE, AND THEN CLICK DOWNLOAD. AFTER YOU DOWNLOAD THE APPLICATION, YOU NEED TO LOOK WHERE YOU SAVED IT AND EXTRACT THE FILES.

THEN YOU NEED TO OPEN A CONSOLE WINDOW IN THE SAME FOLDER AS THE EXTRACTED FILES. THIS IS BECAUSE WE WILL NEXT RUN THE INSTALL SCRIPT CALLED “install-satellite.sh” BY TYPING THIS IN TO THE CONSOLE:

./install-satellite.sh

./install-satellite.sh

TYPE THAT IN TO THE CONSOLE AFTER YOU HAVE CD’d TO THE SAME DIRECTORY THAT THE EXTRACTED FILES ARE IN. THESE FILES ARE IN A FOLDER THAT IS NEXT TO THE FILE THAT YOU DOWNLOADED. ALL THAT YOU HAVE TO DO IS OPEN A CONSOLE WINDOW INSIDE OF THAT FOLDER, AND TYPE IN “./install-satellite.sh” AND IT WILL INSTALL THE PROGRAM FOR YOU, THEN YOU NEED TO SET YOUR $PATH VARIABLE INSIDE OF YOUR “.bashrc” FILE.

THIS WILL ALLOW YOU TO ACCESS SATELLITE FROM ANY CONSOLE WINDOW, AND IT ALSO COMES WITH A PROGRAM CALLED “satl-term”, WHICH IS A TERMINAL DESIGNED ONLY FOR RUNNING SATELLITE PROGRAMS. YOU CAN ACCESS THE “satl-term” PROGRAM BY USING THE SAME $PATH VARIABLE THAT WE SET EARLIER, JUST ADD THIS COMMAND TO YOUR .bashrc FILE:

export PATH="/~/.satl/bin:$PATH"

export PATH="/~/.satl/bin:$PATH"

AFTER YOU HAVE TYPED THAT INTO YOUR .bashrc FILE, CLOSE ANY CONSOLE WINDOWS THAT YOU HAVE OPEN TO REFRESH YOUR VARIABLES AND OPEN THEM AGAIN, YOU WILL NOW HAVE ACCESS TO TWO SEPARATE PROGRAMS:

"satl" -- THE NAME OF THE INTERPRETER
"satl-term" -- THE NAME OF THE TERMINAL FOR RUNNING SATELLITE PROGRAMS

"satl" -- THE NAME OF THE INTERPRETER
"satl-term" -- THE NAME OF THE TERMINAL FOR RUNNING SATELLITE PROGRAMS

OPTIONALLY YOU CAN SET THE NAME “satellite” TO ALSO RUN SATELLITE PROGRAMS, THAT IS UP TO YOU, THE WORD “SATELLITE” MAY BE RESERVED BY REDHAT OR DEBIAN, BUT ESPECIALLY ON ENTERPRISE LINUX THE WORD “SATELLITE” IS RESERVED FOR THEIR PROGRAMS, BUT IF YOU DON’T USE REDHAT SATELLITE, THEN IT MIGHT NOT HURT ANYTHING.

NOW THAT WE HAVE INSTALLED THE INTERPRETER FOR SATELLITE PROGRAMS, WE CAN WRITE ONE! TYPE THESE LINES INTO A TEXT FILE AND CLICK SAVE AS, THEN TYPE IN A NAME FOR IT LIKE “hello_world.satl” OR SOMETHING SIMILAR, BUT ALSO REMEMBER WHERE YOU SAVED THE FILE, WE WILL NEED TO GO THERE TO RUN THE PROGRAM, WE WILL HAVE TO TYPE IN THE FULL ADDRESS OF THE PROGRAM TO RUN IT. SO FIRST THE SYNTAX THAT YOU NEED TO TYPE IN: (AND DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE COMMENTS FOR RIGHT NOW, THEY ARE JUST THERE TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE DIFFERENT LINES, AND YOU DON’T REALLY HAVE TO UNDERSTAND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.)

// this is a comment, you dont need to type in the comments.

// all satellite programs include satellite
satellite.include(satellite)

// a function in satellite is called a "capsule" and your program starts from the "main" capsule. We declare our "main" capsule with the words "satellite.main"
satellite.capsule satellite.main()
{
  // the program begins on the first line of the "satellite.main" capsule
  
  // this line is how you display text on to your screen!
  satellite.console.display("hello, world!")
  
  // after you run this program, you should see only the words "hello, world!"
  
  // you can type in anything in between the parentheses, and it will display the text.
  
  // this line ends the program, and it will close the interpreter for you
  satellite.return(satellite)
}

// this is a comment, you dont need to type in the comments.

// all satellite programs include satellite
satellite.include(satellite)

// a function in satellite is called a "capsule" and your program starts from the "main" capsule. We declare our "main" capsule with the words "satellite.main"
satellite.capsule satellite.main()
{
  // the program begins on the first line of the "satellite.main" capsule
  
  // this line is how you display text on to your screen!
  satellite.console.display("hello, world!")
  
  // after you run this program, you should see only the words "hello, world!"
  
  // you can type in anything in between the parentheses, and it will display the text.
  
  // this line ends the program, and it will close the interpreter for you
  satellite.return(satellite)
}

THIS CONCLUDES THE BEGINNER SATELLITE TUTORIAL!

THE SCRIPT “install-satellite.sh” INCLUDES EVERYTHING THAT THE REAL INSTALLER INCLUDES, AND IT CHANGES YOUR FILES TO LOOK LIKE PIECES OF PAPER WITH SATELLITES ON THEM.

I AM STILL WORKING ON PROGRAMS THAT OFFER SYNTAX HIGHLIGHTING, I JUST DON’T HAVE THE TIME TO GET EVERYTHING WORKING FOR IT, GTK4 PROGRAMS ARE VERY COMPLICATED.

THIS PAGE DOESN’T OFFER SYNTAX HIGHLIGHTING FOR THE SATELLITE LANGUAGE BECAUSE I DON’T HAVE THE TIME TO PROGRAM SYNTAX HIGHLIGHTING FOR IT MYSELF.