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Mesche Compiler

Features
Usage
- Build from Source
- Build on Guix
Commentary
Future Features
License

Mesche is a programming language that is designed for integration in C applications.

It is used as a high-performance scripting language to drive C applications and enable interactive development of program behavior. The compiler and runtime can be compiled directly into the C application so that this interactivity is available even in shipped applications.

Features

Compiles directly to bytecode running on a custom VM
First-class functions with closures
First-class delimited continuations via reset and shift
Tail-call optimization for recursive algorithms and loops
Modules can be defined and loaded into Mesche projects
Record types with fast setter and accessor functions
Native function registration for integrating with C APIs
Supports running a VM per OS thread (theoretically, but not tested)
Cross-platform build orchestration, dependency management, and release builds with mesche build and mesche cli: https://github.com/mesche-lang/cli

Usage

Build from Source


  git clone https://codeberg.org/mesche/mesche
  ./bootstrap.sh
  cd build
  make

  # Run the REPL!
  components/cli/mesche repl

Build on Guix

I've provided a guix.scm file which makes it easy to build and install local clone of Mesche on Guix:


  guix shell --pure -f guix.scm coreutils

This will build a local Guix Shell environment where you can run mesche repl.

Alternatively, you can open a development shell to build Mesche using the steps in the previous section:


  guix shell --pure -Df guix.scm coreutils
  # .. run cmake, etc ...

Commentary

Principles

Simple: The compiler and runtime should be easy to understand and debug.
Extensible: The language will be extensible through macros, Mesche modules, and easy registration of C functions into the runtime.
Practical: Provides tools to build C/C++ projects that use Mesche (`mesche build`) and also manage project dependencies, especially those containing Mesche modules.

Use cases

Developing hackable tools for creative work (video and music production, writing, task management)
Game development with the Substratic Engine
Mobile application development (in the future)

Should I use this?

Probably not, this project is highly experimental and will probably change frequently. However, if you find the idea interesting and would like to try it, I would certainly be happy to have your feedback!

Future Features

A set of persistent data structures a la Clojure
Support for Windows, macOS, and Android
Hygenic macro definitions following Scheme's design
Authoring C API bindings directly in Mesche code to generate C wrappers
APIs for working with dynamic arrays of C structures

License

This project is licensed under the BSD 3-Clause License.

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