Learn FALCON with Real Code Examples

Falcon is designed to be lightweight yet powerful, making it suitable for scripting, rapid prototyping, and general-purpose programming.

It combines multiple paradigms including procedural, object-oriented, and functional programming.

Falcon emphasizes simplicity, readability, and flexibility while offering advanced features like first-class functions and exception handling.

Procedures and functions

Object-oriented programming with classes and objects

Functional programming constructs

Dynamic variables and arrays

Built-in modules for I/O, networking, and math

Variables and constants

Procedures, functions, and objects

Arrays and maps

First-class functions and closures

Exception handling

Source script files (.fal)

Optional module files

Resource files if needed

Test scripts for validation

Documentation for functions and modules

Write Falcon script in .fal file

Use procedures and objects to structure code

Test interactively in the interpreter

Debug using error messages and tracing

Deploy script for automation or embedding

Beginner: simple scripting tasks

Intermediate: automation with object-oriented code

Advanced: functional programming with closures

Expert: embedding Falcon into larger applications

Falcon vs Python: simpler, smaller ecosystem, faster for lightweight scripting

Falcon vs Lua: similar lightweight scripting and embedding focus

Falcon vs Ruby: less library support, smaller community

Falcon vs Perl: more modern multi-paradigm approach

Falcon vs JavaScript: not browser-based, more general scripting focus

Early 2000s – Falcon created by Marc LeBlanc

2005 – Initial interpreter release

2010 – Multi-paradigm support expanded

2015 – Modules and embedding capabilities improved

2025 – Latest stable release with updated libraries

Interpreter: executes Falcon scripts

Procedure: reusable code block

Function: code returning value

Object: instance of a class

Closure: function capturing local environment