squiggle/packages/website/docs/Introduction.md

---
sidebar_position: 1
title: Introduction
---

Squiggle is a simple programming language for intuitive probabilistic estimation. It's meant for quantitative forecasting and evaluations.

The basics of Squiggle can be pretty simple and intuitive. The more advanced functionality can take some time to learn.

## What Squiggle Is

- A simple programming language for doing math with probability distributions
- An embeddable language that can be used in Javascript applications
- A tool to embed functions as forecasts that can be embedded in other applications

## What Squiggle Is Not

- A complete replacement for enterprise Risk Analysis tools (See Crystal Ball, @Risk, Lumina Analytica)
- A Probabilistic Programming Language with backwards inference and sophisticated sampling algorithms. (See [PPLs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probabilistic_programming))
- A visual tool aimed at casual users (see Guesstimate, Causal)

## Get started

- [Gallery](./Discussions/Gallery)
- [Squiggle playground](/playground)
- [Language basics](./Guides/Language)
- [Squiggle functions source of truth](./Guides/Functions)
- [Known bugs](./Discussions/Bugs)
- [Original lesswrong sequence](https://www.lesswrong.com/s/rDe8QE5NvXcZYzgZ3)
- [Author your squiggle models as Observable notebooks](https://observablehq.com/@hazelfire/squiggle)
Add interactive documentation 2022-03-25 02:08:46 +00:00			`---`
			`sidebar_position: 1`
Made docs better Value: [1e-3 to 2e-1] 2022-04-27 20:28:10 +00:00			`title: Introduction`
Add interactive documentation 2022-03-25 02:08:46 +00:00			`---`

Several small documentation improvements 2022-07-23 18:06:15 +00:00			`Squiggle is a simple programming language for intuitive probabilistic estimation. It's meant for quantitative forecasting and evaluations.`

			`The basics of Squiggle can be pretty simple and intuitive. The more advanced functionality can take some time to learn.`

			`## What Squiggle Is`
Ran formatting 2022-07-23 18:41:12 +00:00
Several small documentation improvements 2022-07-23 18:06:15 +00:00			`- A simple programming language for doing math with probability distributions`
			`- An embeddable language that can be used in Javascript applications`
			`- A tool to embed functions as forecasts that can be embedded in other applications`

			`## What Squiggle Is Not`
Ran formatting 2022-07-23 18:41:12 +00:00
Several small documentation improvements 2022-07-23 18:06:15 +00:00			`- A complete replacement for enterprise Risk Analysis tools (See Crystal Ball, @Risk, Lumina Analytica)`
			`- A Probabilistic Programming Language with backwards inference and sophisticated sampling algorithms. (See [PPLs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probabilistic_programming))`
			`- A visual tool aimed at casual users (see Guesstimate, Causal)`
Add interactive documentation 2022-03-25 02:08:46 +00:00
Made docs better Value: [1e-3 to 2e-1] 2022-04-27 20:28:10 +00:00			`## Get started`
Add interactive documentation 2022-03-25 02:08:46 +00:00
Sidebar order of pages; adjusted title/subtitle; cleanup Value: [1e-7 to 1e-3] 2022-05-10 19:23:04 +00:00			`- [Gallery](./Discussions/Gallery)`
			`- [Squiggle playground](/playground)`
Fixed broken links 2022-06-04 16:36:30 +00:00			`- [Language basics](./Guides/Language)`
hotfix: relative path 2022-06-30 18:38:59 +00:00			`- [Squiggle functions source of truth](./Guides/Functions)`
Sidebar order of pages; adjusted title/subtitle; cleanup Value: [1e-7 to 1e-3] 2022-05-10 19:23:04 +00:00			`- [Known bugs](./Discussions/Bugs)`
Made docs better Value: [1e-3 to 2e-1] 2022-04-27 20:28:10 +00:00			`- [Original lesswrong sequence](https://www.lesswrong.com/s/rDe8QE5NvXcZYzgZ3)`
Fixed 95->90 Value: [1e-4 to 3e-3] 2022-04-27 20:51:23 +00:00			`- [Author your squiggle models as Observable notebooks](https://observablehq.com/@hazelfire/squiggle)`