VGA Flag Language

The VGA Flag Language is a DSL for defining pride flags, to be used in VGAPride.

Example flag script:

$names=["demisexual"]
$description="The Demisexual pride flag"
// Unknown creator. Maybe research further?
$textcolor=$black

vertical{
	RGB(255,255,255)
	RGB(255,255,255)
	RGB(110,  0,112)
	RGB(210,210,210)
	RGB(210,210,210)
}

Polygon Filled, (0,0), [(0,0), (240,240), (0,480)], $black

Rendering context

Scripts generate a 640x480 image which uses a max of 16 colors.

The only pre-defined color is 0, which is black. The other 15 colors will be allocated as they are used, and the compiler will throw an error if too many colors are used.

The coordinate system is 0-639 horizontally, 0-479 vertically, starting in the top-left.

Overall structure

The main elements of a script are comments, variable declarations, structures, and commands.

Comments can start anywhere on a line and begin with // and continue to a newline.

Variable declarations take the form $variable_name = SOMEVALUE (see Value Types below)

Structures are curly-brace delimited blocks which automatically generate rectangle commands based on colors. See Structures below.

Commands are functions which draw different shapes into the image. See Command List below.

Value Types

There are six value types used for variables:

Value types

Name	Examples	Description
Integer	4 -5 +15	Whole signed numbers, 16-bits. Used for text sizing and ellipse width/height.
Color	RGB(10,20,30) #FF00FF	A given color. Technically 6-bits-per-channel, but we're pretending they're not
Enumeration	Filled Medium Outline	Used for special values in commands
String	"foobar" 'bazqux'	A text string used for metadata
Point	(10,25) (-50, 500)	A point is a geometric location made of two integers.
List	["hello"] [(25,0), (50,0)]	A list is a static array of values. Only used for Points and Strings.

Metadata

Some variable definitions are interpreted by VGAPride. These special definitions are:

Metadata variables

Name	Description	Type	Default value
$names	Used to look up the flag from the command line. The first one is considered the canonically name, and will be shown in the help. Required	List of Strings	N/A
$description	The longform description shown in the list. Required.	String	N/A
$credits	Gives credit to the creator/lists creation details like variants.	String	N/A
$textsize	the font size to use when displaying the description on the slideshow mode.	Integer	4
$textcolor	The color to use when displaying the description on the slideshow mode.	Color	RGB(255,255,255)
$textlayout	Where to place the description text in slideshow mode. Can be set to Left/Right/Center	Enumeration	Center

Predefined colors:

Some variables are predefined with colors to be used in images. The pre-defined colors are:

Pre-defined colors

Name	Color
$black	RGB(0,0,0)
$white	RGB(255,255,255)

Structures

Structures automatically generate commands in a given order to simplify generating common flag types. The two available structures are "vertical" and "horizontal", which align the colors top-to-bottom and left-to-right, respectively. The stripes are given equal heights/widths.

An example structure:

vertical{
	RGB(  7,141,112)
	RGB( 38,206,170)
	RGB(153,232,194)
	RGB(255,255,255)
	RGB(123,173,227)
	RGB( 80, 73,203)
	RGB( 62, 26,120)
}

Commands

Commands draw to the image, taking some number of parameters. There's also one meta-command, #include, explained below.

Commands

Name	Arguments	Description	Example
Rectangle	2 Points & a color	A rectangle defined by the upper-left and bottom-right points	Rectangle (0,50), (200,60), $white
Ellipse	A point, width/height integers, and a color	An ellipse (or circle), defined by the given width/height	Ellipse (320,240), 72, 72, RGB(27,23,30)
Polygon	A polygon-type enum, a base point, a list of points, and color	A polygon, either filled, outlined, or with thick outlines. (The polygon is shifted by the base point before rendering)	Polygon Filled,(0,0), [(232,292),(319,135),(319,169),(260,274)],$white
Lines	A line-type enum, a base point, a list of points, and a color	A series of (connected?) lines, Regular or Thick	Lines Thick, (0,0), [(25,0), (0,25)], $white
Image	A string to a PNG file	Inserts a 16-color 640x480 image. Will overwrite any existing image	Image "crabgay256.png"

meta-include

#include is a meta-command which looks up another flag and inserts it at the current position, as if all the commands from that flag had been copy-pasted into this one. It takes a string to look up the flag by filename. Paths aren't supported: it's only a filename

Example:

#include "seven-stripe-rainbow.flag"