Technical Details

Vortex scripts reside in HTML-like text files on a Web server, typically in the /usr/local/morph3/texis/scripts (Unix) or c:\morph3\texis\scripts (Windows) directory (see ScriptRoot, here). The source files typically have a .vs extension, and the compiled files have a .vsc extension. Vortex scripts are run by the CGI program texis upon request of a Web browser (or command line). The program will automatically re-compile scripts whose objects are out of date with respect to their source, so no explicit re-compiling by the user is needed.

A Vortex script is delimited in an HTML file by <SCRIPT> tags, with LANGUAGE=vortex:

...
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=vortex>
  ... Vortex directives (if any) ...
  ... Vortex functions ...
</SCRIPT>
... other HTML (ignored) ...

There can be multiple <SCRIPT> elements in a file; they are concatenated as one Vortex script (though functions cannot be split across script blocks). All text outside of <SCRIPT language=vortex> tags is ignored.

The syntax of Vortex scripts, with few exceptions, follows that of HTML. This allows the easy intermixing of the two, and minimizes errors if a Web browser ever views a Vortex source file or script. All Vortex commands and directives are HTML tags, some with optional attributes. Like HTML, attribute values may contain whitespace and other non-alphanumeric characters if the value is enclosed in single or double quotes. Tags and attributes are case-insensitive; however function and variable names are case-sensitive.

The following is a minimal example script that just prints "Hello, world!":

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=vortex>

<A NAME=main>
  Hello, world!
</A>

</SCRIPT>