https://github.com/kritzcreek/nemo-lang

A small procedural programming language that compiles to Wasm GC
https://github.com/kritzcreek/nemo-lang

compiler programming-language wasm

Last synced: 10 days ago
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A small procedural programming language that compiles to Wasm GC

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/kritzcreek/nemo-lang
• Owner: kritzcreek
• License: mit
• Created: 2023-11-03T17:40:16.000Z (about 1 year ago)
• Default Branch: main
• Last Pushed: 2024-10-08T04:18:26.000Z (30 days ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-10-11T23:54:53.746Z (26 days ago)
• Topics: compiler, programming-language, wasm
• Language: Rust
• Homepage: https://kritzcreek.github.io/nemo-lang/
• Size: 7.76 MB
• Stars: 10
• Watchers: 3
• Forks: 2
• Open Issues: 12
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • License: LICENSE

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README

        
# nemo-lang

nemo is a small procedural programming language that compiles to Wasm GC

## Playground

Check out the [Nemo playground] for example programs.

It runs entirely in your browser, so you can play around and experiment however you like.

## Motivation

I "know" how to do a lot of things in compilers theoretically, conceptually, or in isolation.

This project helps me verify I can actually put them together and understand them well enough to put into practice.

I think Wasm GC is a fantastic opportunity.

It could make creating new high-level interesting languages fun, and accessible.

Part of making that a reality is building tooling, examples, and teaching materials.

I hope Nemo can help in that effort.

Depending on how the language evolves it might become part of my compilers course at TH Cologne.

## Language Features

Most features can be directly mapped to Wasm GC constructs. I'm just listing them here:

- Function imports

- Top-level functions

- Globals

- Primitive types: i32, f32, bool, unit

- Composite types: Structs (nominal), Arrays (structural)

- if-expressions

- while

- Early returns

- Infix operators for most numeric instructions

- Built-in functions/intrinsics for all other numeric functions

Features we implement "on-top"

- First order parametric polymorphism (Generics) via monomorphization

- Variants & Pattern matching

- First class functions (closures)

- Lazy initialization for non-const globals

- Type directed operator resolution (+ can mean both i32.add and f32.add)

- Type directed field resolution for struct access

- Nested set targets for composite types: `set p.particles[2].vx = 10.0`

- Block scoping

## Working on the project

The compiler is written in Rust, so at the minimum you'll need a [Rust toolchain].

While developing the compiler a couple of other tools are useful/necessary to have:

- just: The command runner used for tasks in the [justfile]

- wasm-bindgen: Required to build the playground

- wasm-tools: Wasm pretty printer/parser tools

- wasm-opt: The wasm-opt tool from Emscripten packaged up as a Rust package

The easiest way I've found to install them is using [cargo-binstall]:

```sh

cargo binstall just wasm-bindgen-cli wasm-tools wasm-opt watchexec-cli

```

Additionally you'll need [Deno] to run the tests.

[Nemo playground]: https://kritzcreek.github.io/nemo-lang

[Rust toolchain]: https://rustup.rs

[cargo-binstall]: https://github.com/cargo-bins/cargo-binstall

[justfile]: ./justfile

[Deno]: https://deno.com/