Vox is a multiparadigm programming language inspired by D (60%), Jai (30%), and Zig (10%).
- Fast compilation
- Strong metaprogramming
- Can be used for scripting and standalone programs (both JIT and AOT compilation)
- No dependencies (except D compiler)
- Same syntax for most portions of the language (struct, function, enum, for, while, if, UFCS, slices, arrays)
- Conditional compilation
- Templates, Variadic templates, and functions
- C interoperability
- Modules / Packages
- No GC, minimal runtime, no classes (only structs), no exceptions
- More compile-time features, faster CTFE
- Using templates for heavy calculations is discouraged, instead, CTFE can be used for introspection, and code generation.
- Macros (WIP)
- No C++ interoperability
Supported:
- windows-x64 - host and target
- linux-x64 - host and target
- macos-x64 - only jit-mode
Planned:
- linux-arm64
- wasm
- windows-arm64?
- spirv (Vulkan/OpenCL/OpenGL shaders)
- Strong focus on application extensions
- Maximize user productivity
- Maximize application performance
- AOT and JIT, plugin support, runtime compilation, embedded compiler, tiered compilation
- Static typing
- Great error messages
- Fast / Incremental compilation
- Minimize effort needed for installation, setup, integration
- Minimal dependencies/encapsulate dependency into module or package
- Runtime as a library/minimal runtime/no runtime
- Embedding/extern C
- Code driven compilation, extending compiler from inside of the program being compiled
- Processor intrinsics
- Conditional compilation
- CTFE, Templates, Introspection, Code generation
i32 fib(i32 number) {
if (number < 1) return 0;
if (number < 3) return 1;
return fib(number-1) + fib(number-2);
}
struct Point {
i32 x;
i32 y;
}
T min[T](T a, T b) {
if (a < b) return a;
return b;
}
- Fibonacci https://gist.github.com/MrSmith33/9645d9552b567fdbdc1a4d8822b4f1f7
- Fannkuch https://gist.github.com/MrSmith33/ac14e66a83b9d047793adede464ca1ef
- Roguelike tutorial using SDL2 - repo
- Voxel engine that uses Vox as a scripting language: Voxelman 2
- Example of JIT compilation for amd64 from D code:
code
// Source code
string source = q{
void test(i32* array, i32 index, i32 value) {
array[index] = value;
}
};
// Error handling is omitted
Driver driver;
driver.initialize(jitPasses);
scope(exit) driver.releaseMemory;
driver.beginCompilation();
driver.addModule(SourceFileInfo("test", source));
driver.compile();
driver.markCodeAsExecutable();
// Get function pointer
auto testFun = driver.context.getFunctionPtr!(void, int*, int, int)("test");
// Use compiled function
int[2] val = [42, 56];
testFun(val.ptr, 1, 10);
assert(val[1] == 10);
In main.d
uncomment one of the following lines:
//version = bench; // Runs benchmark
//version = devtest; // Run single test with fine-tuned logging. Useful for development. Uses tester.runDevTests(). Toggle options there for precise analisys while developing.
//version = test; // Runs test suite. Uses tester.runAllTests().
and run with: source> dmd -m64 -i main.d && main
Benchmarking:
ldc2 -d-version=bench -m64 -O3 -release -boundscheck=off -enable-inlining -flto=full -i main.d && main
Debug CLI build:
dmd -i -g -m64 -version=cli main.d -of=../test_work_dir/vox.exe
Release CLI build:
ldc2 -d-version=cli -m64 -O3 -release -boundscheck=off -enable-inlining -flto=full -mcpu=native -i main.d -of=../test_work_dir/vox.exe
Pretty asserts with stack traces are disabled in non-debug builds by default.
- Add
--d-debug=PRETTY_ASSERT
flag to enable pretty asserts in ldc release build. - Add
-debug=PRETTY_ASSERT
flag to enable pretty asserts in dmd release build.
Gives the full list of flags
vox --help
Produces hello.exe
vox hello.vx C:\Windows\System32\kernel32.dll
.vx
files are source code files..har
files, aka Human Readable Archive files. A text file that combines multiple textual files.
Each file must begin with --- <path>
, three dashes, space, and name.
Files can be nested inside directories --- dir/dir2/file.txt
.
Example:
--- main.vx
import kernel32;
void main() { ExitProcess(42); }
--- kernel32.vx
noreturn ExitProcess(u32 uExitCode);
Can be compiled with vox program.har C:\Windows\System32\kernel32.dll
.dll
files. Compiler will link external functions by searching symbols inside provided.dll
file(s).
The compiler contains embedded tools:
Prints content of vox.pdb file into stdout.
vox pdb-dump vox.pdb
- Impl size: 35k LoC of D, 2.4MB exe
- Time to compile: 3.5s debug / 45s release
- Test suite: 60ms for 270 tests
For more in detail description of implementation see internals.md