This repository contains the code for a compiler for a custom programming language, which i developed as part of a "Besondere Lernleistung" (academic paper for school).

The paper is written in german and can be found in the bll/ directory.

The compiler is written in Rust and uses LLVM IR as target language. If a installation of clang (>= 16) is available the compiler will output a executable binary.

Usage

./compiler <input-file>

Arguments

• -e, --emit-llvm: Emit LLVM IR instead of compiling to binary

• -o, --output <file>: Output file for the binary (default: ./out.exe)

• -h, --help: Print help message

• -v, --version: Print version information

• -d, --dont-write-output: Don't write output to a file (intended for debugging)

Language

Syntax and Semantics

The syntax is inspired by Python and Rust.

import "std/io.mx"

class Foo { # class
    inner: int64,
}

def new() for Foo -> Foo { # static method
    return Foo { inner: 0 };
}

def get_inner(self) for Foo -> int64 { # method
    return self.inner;
}

def main() -> int64 { # function + entry point

    let mut foo = Foo::new(); # variable declaration

    foo.inner = 0; # field reassignment

    while (foo.inner) < 10 { # while loop
        foo.inner = foo.inner + 1;
    }

    println("The inner value is:");
    println(foo.get_inner().to_string());

    return 0;
}

Other language features

• No memory safety (the user is responsible for managing memory)
• Use functions of the c standard library (e.g for I/O, memory allocation)
• Generics
• Operator overloading
• Rather helpful error messages

More examples can be found in example/ and src/tests/.