GameMaker Language (GML) vs. Unlambda vs. ZenScript vs. test_coverage Comparison Chart

The GameMaker Language (also called simply GML) is the proprietary GameMaker scripting language. This language is structured to permit users to create their games in an intuitive and flexible way while offering all the power of any other major programming language. It is also the basis for GML Visual and can be used in conjunction with that if required. Each event has its own tab in the editor and you can add, edit, or remove code from them at any time (for more information on events see Object Events). The code itself must have a basic structure and can contain resource indices, variables, functions, expressions, keywords, etc. all of which are explained in the sections below. If you are a novice to programming or making the switch from GML Visual, it is recommended that you start with the page on basic code structure and then read through all the other pages in this section, testing code from each one within GameMaker itself.

ZenScript originated from MineTweaker where a simple programming language is needed to allow users without programming knowledge to be able to execute simple commands by following the tutorials for it. Originally MineTweaker had a simple one-line-at-a-time parsed scripting system, but it quickly became clear that it wasn't flexible enough, so a simple parsed language was created. This parsed language worked quite well but was very inefficient as each value was wrapped into its own object. ZenScript allows mixed typed and typeless behavior. You don't need to define types anywhere, the compile will infer them where possible and exhibit typeless behavior when the type is effectively unknown. In nearly all the cases, the type is perfectly known and execution runs at native Java speed. Since there are types, they can be documented and enforced.