Shiika

Shiika is a programming language that makes me most productive.

• Easy to write like Ruby or Python
• Static type checking (Null safety!)
• Object-oriented but has enums and pattern-matching
• Written in Rust, compiles to single binary via LLVM IR

Concept

Most of the static typing languages, such as C++/Java/Scala/Go/Swift/Kotlin/Rust, etc. are designed for execution speed. However what I want a "lightweight" static typing language to make application faster.

Design policy

• Easiness over performance
  • Shiika is a glue language. Use Rust (or C, etc.) for performance-critical parts and load it as a library
• Easy to learn
  • There may be more than one way to do it, but not too many.

Comparison to Crystal

Shiika has lots in common with Crystal. However:

• In Shiika, type annotation of method parameters are mandatory. This helps reading programs written by others
• Shiika has only one class Int for integers (cf. Int8, Int16, Int32 in Crystal)
• Shiika does not have union types. The type system is more similar to languages such as Rust, Java or Swift (this isn't good or bad; just a difference)

Example

class A
  def fib(n: Int) -> Int
    if n < 3
      1
    else
      fib(n-1) + fib(n-2)
    end
  end
end
p A.new.fib(34)

See examples/*.sk for more.

Install

→ install.md

Documents

• Language Guide
• Language Specification
• Development Guide

Status

Early-alpha; capable of solving algorithmic problems like Advent of Code but a lot more stdlib is needed for practical application.

Features already implemented

• Classes, Modules, Enums
• Basic Generics
• Basic pattern-matching
• Anonymous function
• Core classes - Object, Array, String, Bool, Int, Float, Dict, Maybe, Class, Metaclass

See tests/sk/ and examples/ for more.

Features not yet implemented

• Something like Ruby's require
• Type inference
• More stdlib like Time, File, etc.

See Issues for more.

Roadmap

• v0.10.0~
  • Type system: Upper and lower bound
  • Type system: Variance specifier
  • Syntax: .try!
  • Semantics: Non-local return
  • Built-in: Bignum, Rational?
  • Built-in: Dir, Process
  • Built-in: Split Array and MutableArray?
  • Simple package system (shiika build)
• After v1.0.0
  • Some meta-programming feature (like Crystal?)
  • Some mechanics for parallel computation

Supported platform

• Tested on Mac, Linux(Ubuntu) and Windows
• May not work on 32bit environment

Hacking

For building, testing, and debugging the compiler, see the Development Guide. For the internals of the compiler, see the Shiika Hacking Guide.

License

MIT

Contact

https://github.com/shiika-lang/shiika/issues