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Comment by usl | Hacker News Reader

Hey HN,

I built something I wish I had years ago.

USL (Universal Scripting Language) is a symbolic syntax system that lets you write logic once, and output that logic into 111+ real programming languages — Python, Rust, C++, JS, Java, Go, etc.

Upload a .usl file into the hosted app → choose any language(s) → download a .zip of the real code.

It supports:

Symbolic logic for print, assign, function, loop, if, etc.

Custom syntax templates for each language

A web app with multiselect UI + ZIP bundling

Gumroad option to support or unlock everything ($5)

App + Source: https://townsendatomics.gumroad.com/l/usl

I’d love your thoughts on:

How it could be more useful for devs/teachers

Any language you'd want added

Whether this belongs as a CLI tool, VS Code plugin, or playground next

Happy to answer anything or collab. Thanks for reading!

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Hey, congrats on the launch. I'm interested in what use-case led you to create this? What problem does it solve?

I've had a little experience translating code between languages (ObjC/Swift, Javascript/Python), and it has been frustrating, not because of re-stating the logic, but due to different availability of libraries, different execution semantics (e.g. async/await), different type systems, etc.

Also, it looks like USL is a new language? Did you consider something like CEL instead (Common Expression Language, https://cel.dev/), which seems to be doing something similar for the expression of basic logic.

It's a new language. I haven't tried cel, but USL transpiles all of the logic--I'll keep working on it and make sure it works as you've mentioned.

I was curious to see if I could do something like this for fun. It currently works with 111 languages from the 40/50s-today.

I think the landing page would be a lot more convincing with more examples. Show some simple scripts and a few of the generated outputs so people can get an idea of what your app is capable of.

Absolutely. Huge claim with zero examples is hmm.

You're right. I'll post the examples, asap.

I find it impossible to take a $5 product seriously. It’s either a complete toy or the company will disappear inside of a year, or both. That isn’t a sustainable business model.

Edit: Aldo the very first line of the very first example has. Basic syntax error (missing. Terminal quote in string constant).

Can you post it so I can see please? Which languages did you try?

It's the first release--early bird pricing to raise funds for development.

I’m talking about literally the very first tab of the first example I. The link that was posted

It’s something like print(“foo)

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