Requirements for Rice source code

The following is the requirement which the Rice source file must meet.

The Rice script file for Cooker is a UTF-8 encoded text file and must have the .cook extension.

Please be especially careful in regions that use multi-byte characters. If it is not encoded in UTF-8, the message from the script may be garbled.

It is recommended that the text files related to Cooker encode in the UTF-8.

Mixing encodings between text files which are loaded to Rice scripts may lead to unexpected garbled characters.

You can handle different encodings at same time if you are careful, but if you unify the encodings, you don't have to do like this.

Since the encoding of Rice script files is fixed to UTF-8, it is recommended to encode other text files in UTF-8 as well.

First, it will show you the minimum Rice script.

This script can be executed on Cooker without any problems. However, there is no meaning to execute.

Nothing happens when it is executed because this script does not have any meaningful action.

This script is a minimal and meaningless, but it contains several important points as a Cooker Rice script.

In the section below, let's look at the important points included in this script.

See the example script above. It starts with the "class" followed by the "main" and ends with the "endclass".

A series of words starting with "class" and ending with "endclass" is called a class definition in Rice. This "class" and "endclass" are special words that indicate the beginning and end of the class definition, and such special words are called keywords in Rice.

Class definition is the most important element in Rice. That's because the largest element that makes up the Rice script is the class definition.

In the class definition, the word following the "class" is the specification of the class name. In the above example, the "main" follows the "class". Threfore, this is the definition of the "main" class.

The main class is a special class in the Rice script. Because, the definition of the main class is absolutely required.

The above example is the definition of the main class only, but you can define any number of classes if the class name is valid and different.

Look at the second and third lines of the example script above. Here is the content of the class definition.

The start() method has been defined here, that is, an argumentless method with the name "start".

See Methods for more information about method definition rules. Please memorize like the figure below. That's enough for now.

The important thing here is that the start() method of the main class is a special method.

When Cooker is instructed to execute Rice script, it firstly tries to execute the start() method of the main class. the method will execute if it exists in the script, otherwise it will give an error and abort the execution.

In Cooker, the start() method of this main class is the entry point of script execution. All scripts must have this form.

The above script example is a good starting point for Rice scripts, but there are some elements that should be explained before you build the script.

The first is "comment". Comments are annotations that unrelated in program execution.

Rice has two types of comments, but please remember single-line comments here. The rule of single line comment is as shown below.

The point is that anything between the double slash (//) and the end of the line will be ignored at runtime.

The second is the end() method. The end() method is shown below.

The end() method is a pair of start() methods. The start() method is called when the script starts, the end() method is called when the script ends.

However, the definition of the start() method is required, but the definition of the end() method is optional.

Cooker tries to execute the end() method of the main class at the end of the execution of Rice script. If it exists, execute it, otherwise do nothing.

The following is a minimum Rice script with the above items added. This will be the template for the tutorials that follow.

There are four way that run the Rice script on the Cooker.

The first way is to drop a .cook file to Cooker's icon.

The second way is to drop a .cook file to the script tile.

The third way is to select a .cook file from the file selection dialog.

The fourth way is a shortcut key.

The second method is briefly explained below.

After launching Cooker, drop the .cook file on the script tile.

Script tile is colored area on the right side of the window. Drag and drop the .cook file from Explorer here to run the script.