Beginner's Guide

This guide helps you install Matchbox and run a small source file. It is the shortest path from a fresh download to a working program.

Matchbox 0.2 is a small programming language with a compact command-line tool. Source files use the .mb extension and are compiled and run directly by the matchbox command.

What You Need

Before starting, make sure you have:

• A Windows computer.
• A terminal such as PowerShell or Windows Terminal.
• A directory where you can keep command-line tools, such as C:\Tools\Matchbox.
• A text editor for creating .mb files.

First Steps

Follow these pages in order:

1. Install Matchbox, add it to Path, and verify the installed version.
2. First Program creates a main.mb file, runs it with matchbox main.mb, and checks the output.

After those two steps, you will have a working Matchbox installation and a small program that you can edit and run again.

Where to Go Next

Continue to Language Basics to learn about comments, variables, expressions, and functions.

To explore built-in operations, see the Built-in Functions page.