Nu is an interpreted object-oriented programming language, with a Lisp-like syntax, created by Tim Burks as an alternative scripting language to program OS X through its Cocoa application programming interface (API). Implementations also exist for iPhone and Linux.
The language was first announced at C4, a conference for indie Mac developers held in August 2007.
Example code
This Nu code defines a simple complex numbers class.
(class Complex is NSObject
(ivar (double) real
(double) imaginary)
(- initWithReal:(double) x imaginary:(double) y is
(super init) (set @real x) (set @imaginary y) self))
The example is a basic definition of a complex number: it defines the instance variables, and a method to initialize the object. It shows the similarity between the code in Nu and the equivalent in Objective-C; it also shows the similarity with Ruby.
(unless @prefix
(set @prefix
"#{ ((((NSProcessInfo processInfo) arguments) 0) dirName)}.."))
(unless @icon_files
(set @icon_files
(array "#{ @prefix}/share/nu/resources/nu.icns")))
This sample, from the nuke tool bundled with Nu, also shows the influence of Objective-C, Lisp, and Ruby in the design of the language.