goals & non-goals

Oi is not trying to be:

• the smallest
• the fastest
• the most academically perfect
• the most minimal
• another X replacement

The real goal is a language that is enjoyable to write.

philosophy

write what you mean

If a construct is obvious to both the compiler and the reader, Oi tries to let you write it directly.

• implicit returns
• leading literals
• trailing functions
• pattern matching
• named tuples
• minimal punctuation

The language tries to get the gtfo out of your way.

everything composes

Pipelines, expressions, blocks, traits, generics. Rather than introducing a one-off syntax for every feature, Oi tries to make small concepts combine nicely together.

# type composability
Absurd :: ([int]?[]string, []?string, i69)

# ranges + loops
range :: 2..4
loop i in range {
	print(i)
}

# leading literals + trailing functions
test "charlotte's web" {
	assert(charlotte.write() == "some pig")
}
retry 3 {
	fetch(url)?
}
timeout 5 {
	slow_call()?
}

# $ + trailing functions
db.transaction {
	$.insert(user)?
	$.insert(order)?
}

# $ + pipelines
"clojure-like threading" |> wrap("[", $, "]")

# pipelines + trailing functions
result := "spying on pipes"
	|> {
		log.info("stuff and things: {$}")
		$
	}
assert(result == "spying on pipes")

sane defaults

• immutable by default (irrelevant now)
• everything has zero values
• private default
• error handling is required

practical

Oi borrows great ideas where they fit.

You'll see things shamelessly lifted from some languages you know well, and some you don't. Hopefully this doesn't come off as just a grab bag build-a-lang workshop. I think (read: hope) that Oi has its own cohesive narrative, working as more than the sum of its parts. Some of the more specific plagiarized features (*cough* impl *cough*) will likely get revised/renamed/reworked in the near future, but at least for now it doesn't hide its intent.

okay, but why?

Over two decades of learning and using some 50+ programming languages, I developed a taste for ergonomics. I've found that

TODO: finish or scrap or something

influences

• Odin
• V
• Rust
• Jai
• Nushell
• awesome new languages that pop up on /r/programminglanguages, like revo and Capy
• to a lesser extent: Nim, Zig, Clojure, Janet, Lua, Julia