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Quetzal Language

Welcome to Quetzal Language

Quetzal Language is a modern interpreted programming language, designed with fully Spanish syntax to make programming more accessible to the Spanish-speaking community.

What is Quetzal Language?

Section titled “What is Quetzal Language?”

Quetzal is a runtime-interpreted language implemented in Rust to guarantee high performance and safety. Its design focuses on:

  • Spanish syntax: Every keyword is written in Spanish
  • Strong typing: Prevents common errors at analysis time
  • Native JSON support: Direct interoperability with JSON structures
  • Optimized performance: Implemented in Rust for maximum efficiency

Project goals

Section titled “Project goals”

Accessible for Spanish speakers

All keywords use Spanish: si, sino, lista, consola, retornar, among others. This decision reduces the learning curve for people who think and work in Spanish.

Instant productivity

The interpreter offers lists, JSON, and objects oriented toward building real-world applications. The built-in methods let you manipulate data without extra dependencies.

Robustness

Lexical and syntactic analysis detects errors early. Messages include suggestions and highlight the line with the issue so you can debug quickly.

Extensibility

Modules let you organize code in separate files and share definitions via exportar and importar. This version also includes native modules such as quetzal/matemática.

Why Quetzal?

Section titled “Why Quetzal?”

Language accessibility

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Quetzal removes the language barrier in programming, enabling Spanish-speaking developers to work with familiar concepts in their native tongue.

What is included in version v0.0.2

Section titled “What is included in version v0.0.2”
  • Primitive types (entero, número, texto, log, vacio), typed and untyped lists, and jsn values with advanced access methods.
  • Objects with privado and publico blocks, constructors, free attributes, and support for static members.
  • Imports and exports between .qz files, symbol aliases, and permissions controlled through quetzal.json to access the file system.
  • Exception handling with intentar, capturar, finalmente, and explicit error throwing with lanzar.
  • Console methods for success, warning, error, info, and prompts for input or passwords.

First look at the language

Section titled “First look at the language”
importar {
    Matemática
} desde "quetzal/matemática"


objeto Usuario {
    privado:
        texto nombre
        entero edad
    publico:
        Usuario(texto nombre, entero edad) {
            ambiente.nombre = nombre
            ambiente.edad = edad
        }


        texto saludo() {
            retornar t"Hola, {ambiente.nombre}. Tienes {ambiente.edad} años."
        }
}


Usuario persona = nuevo Usuario("María", 29)
número suma = Matemática.sumar(7, 3)


consola.mostrar_exito(persona.saludo())
consola.mostrar(t"Resultado de 7 + 3: {suma}")

Spanish-speaking community

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Designed specifically to foster the growth of programming in the Spanish-speaking community.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”

Examples

Review practical examples and sample projects for inspiration.

View examples →

Project philosophy

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“Programming should not require leaving your native language behind. Quetzal brings modern programming to Spanish while preserving the power and elegance of contemporary languages.”

See Quetzal not only as a learning language, but also as a powerful tool to build modern and efficient applications—all in Spanish.

Made in Guatemala

Section titled “Made in Guatemala”

The name “Quetzal” pays homage to Guatemala’s national bird, symbolizing freedom and beauty. The language was created by a very small team of Guatemalan developers passionate about borderless technology.

Contributions

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Quetzal is an open-source project. You can contribute to the development, report bugs, or suggest improvements on our GitHub repository: Contribute on GitHub

Ready to get started? Continue with the installation guide to configure your development environment.