What language are NSIS scripts written in?
Is it NSIS's own language or is it a common language or even Assembly itself? Its looks very familiar to Assembly. I've looked on the website to try to find out what language it is but it doesn't explain what language it is.
The instructions that NSIS uses for scripting are sort of a cross between PHP and assembly.
That is what the manual has to say. The scripting language is unique to NSIS, I don't really see the point of comparing it to other languages. (NSIS evolved from the basic Winamp plugin installer, more history available here)
Several years ago the LogicLib was added which added "high" level macros so you can do basic If's and loops without goto's. Calling functions and plugins still require push'ing parameters to a stack asm style.
The language basically has three types of instructions:
! (!if 1 > 0)The installer UI consists of one or more pages. Each page can execute code based on several callback functions (Show, Leave etc) but most instructions are executed on the instfiles page (A page with a progress bar and log window) The instfiles page executes the code in all the sections. A section is basically a collection of files and instructions used to organize your installer into different parts. If the installer includes a component page, the user is given a list where they can choose which sections to execute.
The full list of instructions can be found in the source (This list does not include plugins and helper macros from external include files) The compiler (makensis.exe) validates and compresses these instructions (along with other files you have included) into a blob that is appended to a small GUI application written in C. This little application interprets these instructions...