Typing

Quarkdown is dynamically typed: every value that may be passed to a function argument is wrapped in a DynamicValue object.

The dynamic value is then adapted or converted to the type expected by the signature of the native function (written in Kotlin, strongly typed) at invocation time.
If a conversion cannot be made, an error occurs.

This invoke-time adaptation reduces constraints, allowing the same value to be handled differently depending on its context.

.var {myvar} {true}

.if {.myvar}
    My value is .uppercase {.myvar}

Output:
My value is TRUE

In this example:

• .var's second parameter accepts a DynamicValue since its value can still be used as any type, thus its value is kept dynamic;
• .if takes a Boolean, so the dynamic true value kept in the myvar variable is converted to boolean;
• .uppercase takes a String, so the the true value is used as a string.

See the Value types section of this wiki to see all the supported types.

Example: source + result

The following example is a simplified version of a function defined in the demo presentation, which shows a Quarkdown code snippet and its visual result right below it:

.function {sourceresult}
  source:
  .code {markdown}
    .source
  .source

Invoking:

.sourceresult
  ## Quarkdown
  Quarkdown was born in **.sum {2000} {24}**!

Output:

## Quarkdown
Quarkdown was born in **.sum {2000} {24}**!

Quarkdown

Quarkdown was born in 2024!

What this example shows is how versatile Quarkdown values are. In the function declaration, the .source argument is retrieved twice:

• In .code, which expects a string, so the source is read as-is and inserted in a code block;
• At the top level: the Quarkdown source is automatically adapted to the context, so it's parsed as rich Markdown content.