README.md

Malin Language

This is a compiler for the experimental malin programming language. For ideas or reporting problems please open an issue on gitlab.

The Language

Malin is inspired by c++ and rust and compiles to bytecode via llvm.
Some language goals are:

• easy to write/understand (especially compared to c++)
• performance like c/c++
• avoid boilerplate code (meta-programming)
• ease usage of the heap with smart pointers

Here is a simple hello world program:

fun main(): i32 {
  let a: i32 = 1;
  // b has also implicit type i32
  let b = 10;

  // a loop
  let i = 0;
  while i <= 5 {
    i = i+1;
  }
  
  return plusAndMul(a, b) + plusAndMul(a, b, multiplyWith= 2);
  // returns 33
}

/**
 * calc sum of a and b and multiply it with multiplyWith afterwards.
 */
fun plusAndMul(a: i32, b: i32, multiplyWith: i32 = 1): i32 {
  return (a + b) * multiplyWith;
}

For a more complex example see plotter.malin in the test folder.
The files directly in the example and test folder are working with the current compiler.

Install

Either install malinc from source, see Build from source, or use the precompiled binaries, see release assets, or install the debian package.

Precompiled binary

Download the precompiled binary archive, or the installer script from the release assets. Note, that you also have to install the clang dependency:

• For debian based systems:

  apt install clang

• For arch systems:

  pacman -S clang

Debian package

For debian based systems as ubuntu, a debian package for malinc can be downloaded from the release assets (or directly the latest version malinc.deb). For installing the downloaded debian package execute dpkg (this may require sudo):

dpkg --install malinc-0.0.0-Linux.deb
# fix dependencies
apt-get -f install

Compile a malin program

After installing the compiler, you can start compiling your first malin program:

# note that libmalinCGlued.a has to be be compiled before and is expected to be in './std/c' (only when malinc was not globally installed)
malinc -f myMalinProgram.ma

# run the compiled executable
./bin.o

As a shortcut you can directly compile and run your program at once:

malinc -f myMalinProgram.ma --run

To show all available calling options call malinc --help.

Build from source

First install cmake and c++ compiler. Note that c++20 has to be installed, e.g. via g++-10. Then install llvm dependency and other decencies:

• For debian we have to add the llvm10 package sources because they are not included in Debian 10

  # taken from https://apt.llvm.org/
  apt -y install make cmake wget gnupg git build-essential zlib1g-dev
  wget -O - "https://apt.llvm.org/llvm-snapshot.gpg.key" | apt-key add -
  echo 'deb http://apt.llvm.org/buster/ llvm-toolchain-buster-10 main\ndeb-src http://apt.llvm.org/buster/ llvm-toolchain-buster-10 main ' | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/llvm10.list
  apt update
  apt -y install libclang-common-10-dev clang llvm-10-dev

• For debian based systems such as Ubuntu:

  # c++20
  apt install software-properties-common
  add-apt-repository -y ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
  apt install g++-10 libstdc++-10-dev
  
  # llvm
  apt install llvm-10-dev libclang-common-10-dev
  
  # clang is used for linking
  apt install clang make cmake git

• For arch systems like Manjaro:

  pacman -S llvm10 clang make cmake git

Now build the compiler:

# clone this repo
git clone https://gitlab.com/JeyRunner/malin-lang

# go into repo
cd malin-lang

# make build dir
mkdir build
cd build

# compile with g++-10
CXX=g++-10 cmake ..
make

Then you can either install the compiler with make install and use malinc globally on your system or directly use the resulting binary in the build folder.

When not installing malinc globally you have to call it from the build folder with ./malinc.

Roadmap

• globals
• functions
• expressions (binary, unary)
  • math and logical calculations
• variables (mutable, always copy)
• buildin types (i32, f32)
• control flow: if-else
• control flow: while loop
• static strings like "abc"
• classes (no inheritance)
  • member variables and functions
  • pass and return object to/from functions
  • custom constructors and destructors
• arrays
• references
• casts for numerical types: let y = i32(x)
• move, copy behavior + references
• heap functions as unsafe
• smart pointers for heap (shard, unique)
• compile time code
  • compile time evaluation of statements, expression
  • compile time functions
  • compile time type reflection
• inheritance of classes