hayago

hayago (早語, fast language, pronounced ha-ya-go) is a small, fast, embeddable, statically typed scripting language, written in Nim. Its syntax is inspired by Nim itself.

Its main goals are:

• Simplicity. The core feature set remains small, but powerful enough for usage in applications of varying complexities.
• Soundness. Unlike most scripting languages out there, hayago has a static typing system instead of a dynamic one, which makes code more robust and maintainable. It has generics with type inference, minimizing code repetition and making refactoring easy.
• Speed. It's in the name: fast language. While its speed doesn't match that of more complex languages with JIT compilers, static typing gives hayago a big advantage over other scripting languages.
• Easy embedding. Embedding hayago in your application is as simple as listing all the things you need to be available in the VM.

proc hello(target: string) {
  echo("Hello, " & target)
}

hello("Nim users")

iterator items[T](list: seq[T]) -> T {
  var len = list.len
  for i in 0..<len {
    yield list[i]
  }
}

let features = ["simple", "sound", "fast", "concurrent", "embeddable"]

var message = "hayago is a "
var i = 0
for x in features.items {
  message.add(x)
  if i != features.len - 1 {
    message.add(", ")
  }
  i = i + 1
}
message.add(" scripting language")
echo(message)

Roadmap

hayago is not finished yet. The following checklist represents the current state of affairs when it comes to features:

• hayago 0.1 (currently worked on)
  • variables
  • flow control (if, while, for)
  • objects
    • inheritance
    • non-ref and ref objects
  • procedures
    • closures
    • UFCS
  • iterators
  • generics
    • generic type inference
      • in procedure calls
      • in object constructors
  • modules and import
  • embedding
    • low-level, unsafe functionality
    • high-level macro-based API
  • standard library
    • math
    • string manipulation
    • seq manipulation
    • …
• hayago 0.2
  • coroutines
  • error handling with a try…except…finally-like system
• hayago 0.3
  • tuples
  • multiple for loop variables

There is no hard deadline for any of the listed features. This checklist is supposed to show how much of the language is complete, but it probably misses some points.

If you want to propose a new feature, feel free to open an issue. I'm open to suggestions.

Didn't this use to be called rod?

Yes. I decided to change the name to avoid conflicts with yglukhov/rod, which is a much older project than this. Also, hayago just sounds so much nicer and friendlier, doesn't it?