Boxlang is a modular dynamic language for the JVM, focused on enhancing developer productivity and interoperability with Java. As of its open beta in May 2023, it has garnered over 3,000 downloads and has a substantial number of modules in development and planning. The language aims to support multiple runtimes, emphasize modular architecture, and incorporate modern programming paradigms.

1. The Future is
Dynamic
LED BY
Luis F. Majano

2. LUIS F. MAJANO
Your Host
• CEO Ortus Solutions
• Computer Engineer
• Creator of all things box!
• Documentation Weirdo!
@lmajano @ortussolutions

3. We had a secret!!

5. BoxLang is a modular dynamic language for the JVM, aiming
to make your development more productive, expressive,
functional, and available everywhere.
DYNAMIC : MODULAR : PRODUCTIVE

6. WHY?

7. Why not just fork or collaborate?
Why build a new language?
Why now?

8. State of BoxLang
• Started on July 2023
• Open Beta on May 16 (< 1 Month)
• Pull Requests: 55
• Downloads: 3000+
• Repositories: 30
• Modules Completed: 20
• Modules in Development: 4
• Modules in Planning: 15
• Commits: 500+
• Contributors: 15+

9. • Modules in Development
• bx-encryption
• bx-orm
• bx-pdf
• bx-zip
• Modules in Planning
• bx-charts
• bx-legacy-ui
• bx-login
• bx-feeds
• bx-forms
• BoxLang +/++ Modules in Dev/Plannnig
• bx-couchbase
• bx-exchange
• bx-ftp
• bx-ldap
• bx-mongodb
• bx-redis
• bx-search
• bx-spreadsheet
• bx-elasticsearch
• bx-websockets
✓Modules Completed
✓ bx-compat
✓ bx-derby
✓ bx-esapi
✓ bx-hypersql
✓ bx-image
✓ bx-mail
✓ bx-mariadb
✓ bx-mssql
✓ bx-mysql
✓ bx-oracle
✓ bx-postgresql
✓ bx-unsafe-evaluate
✓ bx-wddx
State of BoxLang

10. CFML Compatibility
• Dual Parser: 98%
• Core BIFS: 96% (404/420)
• Core Tags: 100% (60/60)
• Target Core Completion: July 2024
BIFS Tags

11. 1.0.0 Release -> Fall 2024
DYNAMIC : MODULAR : PRODUCTIVE

12. Goals & Vision

13. Goals & Vision
• Be dynamic, modular, lightweight, and fast
• Be 100% interoperable with Java
• Be modern, functional, and
fl
uent
(Think mixing CFML, Node, Kotlin, Java, and
Clojure)
• Modularity at its core
• Take advantage of the modern JVM
• TDD: Fully tested source code
• Be able to support multiple runtimes
• Have multiple transpilers
CFML -> BoxLang,
Groovy -> BoxLang
X -> BoxLang
• IDE and Tools
• All of our libraries needed to run
• Compete in today’s language environments

14. Key Features

15. Multi-Runtime Architecture

16. Multi-Runtime Architecture
Any OS
Docker MiniServer CommandBox Servlet Lambda Azure Android WebAssembly
Coming Soon Coming Soon Coming Soon
6 MB
9 MB 6 MB
15 MB
15 MB
160 MB

17. AWS Lambda Runtime

18. try.boxlang.io

19. Wanna play?
• try.boxlang.io
• Internet playground for BoxLang
• First Production BoxLang application
• Powered by our AWS Lambda Runtime
• Skinnable
• Embeddable on any Site (Soon)

20. AWS Lambda Runtime
• Every Try.BoxLang.io request can
fi
re up its very own Lambda request
• That means:
• We never have to worry about how many instances we have
• We never have to worry about queueing
• We never have to worry about bad actors accessing other people’s
fi
les
• We can easily update our Lambda runtime and all instances will be
running new code
• Lambdas have tiers too (staging, production, development)
• Scale up as big or as small as we want

21. Coming Soon!
• You will be able to see the Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) for your code
• You will be able to see the console/system output
• Ability to load code from GIST links
• +/++ Features
• Ability to Save to ForgeBox
• Create Projects like repli.it
• Install Modules

22. Strict Dependency Graph

23. Strict Dependency Graph
• Core to be small and focused
• Only add third-party libs if extremely necessary
• Rely on the JDK as much as possible
• Lower surface attack area
• Extremely small distribution (6MB)
• Extend via Modules with their dependencies
commons-io
Antlr
javaparser/asm
commons-lang
jackson-jr
slf4j
logback
Hikari

24. BoxLang Framework

25. BoxLang Framework
RUNTIME
Application
Service
Async
Service
Cache
Service
Component
Service
Datasource
Service
Function
Service
Interceptor
Service
Module
Service
Scheduler
Service

26. Enterprise Caching Engine & Aggregator

27. Enterprise Caching Engine & Aggregator
• Inspired by CacheBox
• Enterprise Caching Engine
• Extensible
• Custom providers
• Custom object stores
• Listeners
• Stats
• Powers all internal caching

28. Scheduling & Task Framework

29. Scheduling & Task Framework
• Inspired by ColdBox Async
• Schedulers are portable,
fl
uent, and human
• Write them in BoxLang or Java
• Task & Completable Futures framework from the JDK
• Access to any executor in Java
• Run schedules at the OS
• Importer from Adobe/Lucee (Soon)
• Task Visualizer (BoxLang Admin, BoxLang Debugger)

30. BoxLang Admin

31. BoxLang Admin (In Development)
• Quasar Administrator
• Progressive Web App
• Desktop Version
• Android/iOS
• Works locally or can be deployed on a server
• Manages your OS install
• Manages your Multi-Site via CommandBox
• Tons of features coming…

34. BoxLang Tooling

35. Tooling Overview

36. Tooling Overview
• BoxLang IDE
• Language Debugger & LSP
• Run classes with a main()
• Run Scripts
• Run / Manage Servers
• Code Converters, Code Formatters
• Code Quality
• Visualizers

37. Tooling Overview
• CLI Tools
• REPL: CLI code execution
• Shebang Scripts: #!/usr/bin/env boxlang
• File Runner: Run
fi
les
• Schedule Runner: Run schedulers
• Transpiler: Convert CFML to BoxLang
• Compiler: BoxLang to Bytecode
• Feature Audit: BIF and Tag report usage
• Packager: Compile and package your modules or BoxLang apps

38. Tooling - BoxLang IDE
• Modern development
fl
ow
• Inline documentation
• Webservers panel
• Works for BL and CFML
• Run BL/CF code directly within VSCode
• Debugger & Language Server
• Committed to ongoing support and development -
new features are on the way!

39. Tooling - BoxLang Debugger
• Purpose built
• Integrates with VSCode via Microsoft’s DAP
• Can debug both the CLI runtime and web
server
• You’ll never use writeDump() again!

40. Tooling - BoxLang Language Server
• Built with BoxLang!
• The BoxLang runtime was built with the LSP in mind
• Full access to the BoxLang syntax parser/compiler
• Access to all BoxLang con
fi
guration, datasources,
mappings, etc…
• Extensible via BoxLang modules
• Foundational for modern language toolchains
• Intellisense
• Static analysis
• More coming soon…

41. Demo Time
🤞
Tooling

42. Tooling - Roadmap
• v0.9.17 = Current Release
• Near future
• Communication between the debugger and language server
• Static code analysis/type hinting (Experimental)
• BoxLang Server management (Experimental)
• Incorporate CommandBox VSCode extension
• +,++ version of debugger
• Language server plugins

43. ARCHITECTURE
With Brad Wood

44. Modern Dynamic Language

45. Modern Dynamic Language
• Dynamically typed just like CFML, but we go further…
• JDK21+ Minimum
• Fully JSR-223 Compliant
• Clojure + BoxLang in development by Sean Cor
fi
eld
• No re
fl
ection, we use InvokeDynamic for everything
• DynamicObject: Any Object can be Dynamic!
• All OO Constructs
• Interfaces, superinterfaces and default method implementations
• Abstract classes and methods
• Static scope and methods on classes and interfaces
• Use all-new JDK features and types
• Collection of Dynamic Casters and Helpers

46. Java Interop

47. Java Interop
• Interact with Java naturally
• It’s just part of the language; no more
separation
• Type inference, auto-casting, type
promotions and coercion
• Long -> Doubles, Doubles ->Longs, etc
• BoxLang Function -> Java Lambdas
• You can import, extend, implement, annotate
from Java
Java Interop

48. Java Interop
• Concept of object resolvers: java, bx, custom
• New BoxLang Scripting: MyScript.bxs
• Components become Classes: MyClass.bx
• All bx/bxm/bxs are runnable via the OS
• Classes can have a main() runnable
convention
• BoxLang annotations
Runnable Classes

49. Pure Functions + Immutable Classes
• Support not only closures (=>) but pure functions (->)
• No side e
ff
ects, no carry-over contexts, pure speed
• Especially for asynchronous programming
• New Immutable classes:
• Arrays, Structs, and Queries
• Great for async safety, read-only snapshots, speed and
more.

50. Multi-Parsers

51. Multi-Parsers : BoxLang + CFML + ???
• Our way to split with the old and bring in the new
• Transpile CFML into BoxLang
• BoxLang is a NEW clean slate
• Compat module for Adobe/Lucee
• Multi-Step Compiler
• Bx -> Java Source -> ByteCode (DebugMode)
• Bx -> Bytecode (Almost done)
• In Planning
• Groovy to BoxLang
• ??? To BoxLang
Choose your path wisely!
.cfc, .cfm
.bx, bxs, bxm

52. BL-AST

53. BL-AST
• AST Visitors for custom tooling
• Feature Audits
• Transpiler
• Pretty Printer
• Code Quality
• getClassMetadata()

54. Event-Driven Language

55. Event-Driven Language
• Interceptors for the language, application, and request
• The best way to scale the language
• Listen to the entire or speci
fi
c language life-cycles
• Modules can listen/collaborate events
• boxAnnounce(), boxAnnounceAsync() : CompletableFuture
Event Channels
Event Producers
Event
Event
Event
Event Consumers
Event
Event
Event

56. Tested & Documented

57. Tested & Documented
• TDD/BDD at the core of the language
• 3500+ Tests Already
• Test not only Java but BoxLang
• Native BoxLang Assert constructs built-in
• Fully Documented
• Generated API Docs
• boxlang.ortusbooks.com

58. Modular Since Birth

59. Modular Needs
Modern Runtimes Have Various Needs!
( and CFML/PHP/Python/Ruby/Etc paradigms are outdated )
• Web Applications - HTTP Request/Response Data
• Tasks and Queues - Watchers, Event Handling, Async
• Lambda and CLI - fast start and blazing speeds!
• iOS/Android - Low resource footprint, event handling
• Web Assembly – Transpilation and Sandboxing

60. BoxLang Modules
• Inspired by ColdBox modules, NOT OSGI
• Core Runtime with lightest possible footprint
• Taps into the language life-cycle
• Write them in Java or BoxLang or Both!
• Executable as CLI packages
• Integrates with Maven/Gradle

61. BoxLang Modular By Design!
• Modular ecosystem, delivered by FORGEBOX
• Core modules for DBMS’, Alternate Runtimes ( e.g. Lambda ), Mail,
Encryption, CFML compatibility and more!
• Write your own functions, components ( tags ), schedulers, JDBC
Drivers, interceptions and more!
• Module has an isolated class loading machinery
• Boundless potential for community contribution and engagement!
• Foment third-party vendors
• FORGEBOX eCommerce Marketplace later this year

62. BoxLang Extends BoxLang
In
fl
uence core runtime behavior with BIFs,
Member Functions, Tags, Interceptors, and More!

63. BoxLang Modules
Take control of your own runtime,
in your own language!

64. PROJET JERICHO
AKA BOXLANG
With Jorge Reyes

65. • July 2023 - We started Project Jericho
• 4 Team Members
• Part-time development
• 4 on-site workshops
• Less than a year later BoxLang Beta
• We did not want to do something halfway; we went all in
A Story of Focus

66. The BoxLang Engineering Team
Luis Majano Gavin Pickin Brad Wood Alan Quinlan Dan Card Daniel Garcia Eric Peterson Esme Acevedo
Grant Copley Javier Quintero Michael Born Jon Clausen Jaime Ramirez Jacob Beers

67. The BoxLang Marketing + Business Team
Cristobal Escobar
Spain
Maria Jose Herrera
El Salvador
Jorge Reyes
Switzerland
Edgardo Cabezas
El Salvador
Veronica Monedero
USA
Jonathan Lainez
El Salvador

68. • Because it’s hard and we love the challenge!
• Because our customers needed it
• Because we needed it
• We wanted to go places that we could not go
• No bug we can’t
fi
x
• No feature we can’t deliver
• No performance we can’t tune
• THE FUTURE IS OURS
Why BoxLang?

69. • BoxLang Community (Free & Open Source) Apache 2
• Two Commercial Subscriptions
• BoxLang +
• Professional Support (SLA)
• Enterprise Modules & Features
• BoxLang + +
• Everything in +
• Premium Support
• Custom Builds
Professional Open Source
boxlang.io/plans

70. BoxLang Roadmap

71. Visionary Licenses
boxlang@ortussolutions.com
• One-time purchase -> Unlimited Licenses -> 10 years
• Support for 10 years included
• Long-term peace of mind
• Invest in the future
• Limited number available

72. A Revolution is Coming…Join us now!
boxlang@ortussolutions.com
Backdrop
AI-generated
by DALL-E
“Mad scientist in lab
experiencing Eureka
moment”

73. THANK YOU