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https://github.com/flax-lang/flax

general purpose programming language, in the vein of C++
https://github.com/flax-lang/flax

c-plus-plus compiler flax language language-design llvm programming-language

Last synced: 2 months ago
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general purpose programming language, in the vein of C++

Host: GitHub
URL: https://github.com/flax-lang/flax
Owner: flax-lang
License: apache-2.0
Created: 2014-11-14T21:07:34.000Z (almost 10 years ago)
Default Branch: master
Last Pushed: 2021-06-20T18:03:30.000Z (over 3 years ago)
Last Synced: 2024-07-24T11:56:11.120Z (2 months ago)
Topics: c-plus-plus, compiler, flax, language, language-design, llvm, programming-language
Language: C++
Homepage:
Size: 5.25 MB
Stars: 147
Watchers: 10
Forks: 10
Open Issues: 12
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Changelog: changelog.md
- License: LICENSE

Awesome Lists containing this project

README

        # [Flax](https://flax-lang.github.io)

A low level, general-purpose language with high level syntax and expressibility.

[![forthebadge](https://forthebadge.com/images/badges/made-with-crayons.svg)](http://forthebadge.com)

[![forthebadge](https://forthebadge.com/images/badges/built-with-resentment.svg)](http://forthebadge.com)

[![build status](https://ci.appveyor.com/api/projects/status/c9cmm08t27ef1hji/branch/master?svg=true)](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/zhiayang/flax/branch/master)

    

[![build status](https://github.com/flax-lang/flax/workflows/CI/badge.svg)](https://github.com/flax-lang/flax/actions)

    

[![Build Status](https://semaphoreci.com/api/v1/zhiayang/flax/branches/master/badge.svg)](https://semaphoreci.com/zhiayang/flax)

-----------------------------------------------

#### Disclaimer ####

I work on Flax in my spare time, and as the lone developer I cannot guarantee continuous development.

I'm no famous artist but this is my magnum opus, so it'll not be abandoned anytime soon.

### Language Goals

- No header files.

- Minimal runtime

- Minimal stupidity

- Clean, expressive syntax

-----------------------------------------------

### Current Features

- Structs, unions, enums

- Arrays (fixed and dynamic), slices

- Pointer manipulation/arithmetic

- Operator overloading

- Generic functions and types

- Type inference (including for generics)

- Full compile-time execution (of arbitrary code)

- Classes, including virtual dispatch and (single) inheritance

-----------------------------------------------

### Language Syntax

- We don't have a proper place that documents everything yet, but most of the basic stuff is probably not gonna change much.

  The testing code in `build/tests/` (most of them, anyway — check `tester.flx` to see which ones we call) tests basically 90% of the

  language, so that's the syntax reference for now.

- Yes, the syntax is not "officially" defined by a grammar. The reference parser implementation is the One True Definition, for now.

-----------------------------------------------

### Code Sample

```rust

import std::io as _

@entry fn main()

{

	println("hello, world!")

}

```

```rust

do {

	fn prints(m: T, a: [U: ...])

	{

		for x in a => printf(" %.2d", m * x)

	}

	printf("set 6:")

	let xs = [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ]

	prints(3, ...xs)

	printf("\n")

}

do {

	union option

	{

		some: T

		none

	}

	let x = option::some("foobar")

	let y = option::some(456)

	println("x = %, y = %", x as some, y as some)

}

```

-----------------------------------------------

### Building the Flax compiler

#### Dependencies ####

- LLVM 11, mostly due to their obsession with changing the IR interface every damn version

- GMP/MPIR

- MPFR

- libffi

#### macOS / Linux

- The `makefile` is the preferred way to build on UNIX systems.

- LLVM needs to be installed. On macOS, `brew install llvm` should work, and you might need to do some PPA fiddling for Debian-based distros.

- A C++17-compatible compiler should be used.

- Find the `flaxc` executable in `build/sysroot/usr/local/bin`.

- Additionally, the (admittedly limited) standard library will be copied from `./libs` to `./build/sysroot/usr/local/lib/flaxlibs/`.

#### Windows

- Install [meson](https://mesonbuild.com/).

- Run `env MPIR_ROOT_DIR=... LLVM_ROOT_DIR=... meson meson-build-dir` to set the locations for the dependencies (see `meson.build` for the names, there are 4) and configure the build.

- Optionally, pass `--buildtype=release` to build a release-mode compiler (highly recommended).

- Run `ninja -C meson-build-dir`.

- `flaxc.exe` will be found in the build directory.

##### Libraries

- Download the [prebuilt binaries](https://github.com/flax-lang/flax/releases/tag/win-build-deps) for the 4 dependencies, and place them somewhere.

- Note: the folder structure of the libraries should be `(llvm|mpir|mpfr|libffi)/(Release|Debug)/(include|lib)/...`.

-----------------------------------------------

### Building Flax Programs

Since nobody in their right mind is *actually* using this, please pass `-sysroot build/sysroot` to invocations of the compiler -- else the compiler will default to looking somewhere in `/usr/local/lib` for libraries. Speaking of which, standard libraries are looked for in `//lib/flaxlibs/`. Prefix is set to `/usr/local/` by default.

Since version 0.41.2, executables can be generated on all 3 of our supported platforms! For Linux and macOS, all that is required is a working C compiler in the `$PATH`; we call `cc` to link object files.

For Windows, even if you are not building the compiler from source (eg. you are using a released binary), Visual Studio 2017 or newer must still be installed, with the "Desktop development with C++", "MSVC v142 (or whatever)", and "Windows 10 SDK" components. However, we currently find the toolchain through [established means](https://gist.github.com/machinamentum/a2b587a68a49094257da0c39a6c4405f), so that `link.exe` does not have to be in the `%PATH%`, ie. you do not have to call `vcvarsall.bat` before running the compiler.

-----------------------------------------------

### Contributors

Special thanks to the Unofficial Official Language Consultants:

[darkf](https://github.com/darkf), [adrian17](https://github.com/adrian17),

[sim642](https://github.com/sim642), and [ryu0](https://github.com/ryu0).

### Contributing

Feel free to open an issue if you feel that there's any missing feature, or if you found a bug in the compiler. Pull requests are also

welcome.

### Licensing

The Flax compiler itself (this repository) is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license (see `LICENSE` file). For ease of building, some dependencies

are included in the repository itself (under the `external` folder) and compiled together, instead of as a separate library (shared or otherwise).

These are:

1. [mpreal](https://bitbucket.org/advanpix/mpreal), GPL

2. [utf8rewind](https://bitbucket.org/knight666/utf8rewind), MIT

3. [tinyprocesslib](https://gitlab.com/eidheim/tiny-process-library), MIT