Tl
A new programming language for the browser
Goal: a practical web development language that doesn't suck
Language features
- Practical: no Big Idea, just a language that works
- Full static nominal typing, with a single Dynamic type
- Simple, well thought-out syntax (that is, Lisp-like, not C-like)
- Null safety
- Sum types, generics, function overloading
- Language-level support for dependency injection, metadata and unit testing
- No inheritance, just interfaces and composition
- Immutability by default, but no "purity" or side effects control
- No "import" duplication in every source file
- Hot code reloading
- Stability after version 1.0: no breaking changes, few new features if any
- Compiles to JokeScript, but with no dependencies on any JS packages
- Compiler and all tooling written in a native language, i.e. fast
Why this name?
"Tl" kind of looks like the letter π. Alternatively, it may stand for "Top language" or "The language". Short and sweet.
Using it
Is a little rough for now...
-
Build it with
. scripts/build.txt -
Put the file test/examples/ui.html into the ./_bin folder
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put the source code into ./_bin/code.tl file
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run ./_bin/tlc
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open the UI and run
Source code
Source code is just 3 files (tl.c, tl.h, tl.internal.h). Navigate them using code folds. For example, in Neovim, use "za" to toggle a fold, and "zm" to close them en masse.
Future releases roadmap
version 0.3.0
- more developed static type system (structs, arrays)
- generic types and overloading for them
- exceptions
- new and final syntax
version 0.4.0
- nullability tracking (a.k.a. flow typing)
- "foreach" loops
- better error reporting
version 0.5.0
- sum types
- pattern matching
- "ifPr" syntax form
version 0.6.0
- async/await
- generators
- aliases
- defer, destructors
version 0.7.0
- source maps for the browser
- loose ends
- maybe something else