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

See install.md

Run tests

$ cargo test

Only integration tests (test/sk/*.sk):

$ cargo test --test integration_test

Specific file under test/sk/ (eg. string.sk):

$ FILTER=string cargo test --test integration_test

With logging enabled

$ RUST_LOG='trace' cargo test

License

MIT

Contact

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