An atom is any non-negative integer of any size. The atom is the most basic data type in Nock and Hoon.
A Hoon atom type consists of a Nock atom with two additional pieces of metadata: an aura, which is a soft type that declares if an atom is a date, a ship name, a number, etc, and an optional constant. A Hoon atom type is warm or cold based on whether or not the constant exists:
- A Hoon atom type is warm if the constant is
~(null), any atom is in the type. - A Hoon atom type is cold if the constant is
[~ atom], its only legal value is the exact value of the atom.
Further Reading
- Hoon School: Our guide to learning the Hoon programming language.
- “Hoon Syntax”: A Hoon School lesson that explains how atoms work.
- The Nock explanation: Includes an explanation of atoms.